{LIBRARY OF CONGRESS.} 

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i UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. f 



V 



A PRACTICAL TREATISE 

ON 

SOLUBLE OE WATEE GLASS, 

SILICATES OF SODA AND POTASH, 

FOR 

SILICIFYINO STONES, MORTAR, CONCRETE, 

and HYDRAULIC LIME, RENDERING WOOD 

and TIMBER FIRE and DRY ROT PROOF, 

&c, &c, &c. 



HUNDREDS of RECEIPTS for SOAP, CEMENTS, PAINTS & WHITEWASHES, 
R. R. SLEEPERS, WOODEN PAVEMENTS, SHINGLES, &c. 



DR. LEWIS FEITCHTWANGER, 
Chemist and Mineralogist. 



Concluded with Various Essays on the Origin and Functions of Carbonic 

Acid, Limestones, Alkalies and Silica; and a Complete Guide for 

Manufacturing Plain and Colored Glass. 



Tr 



"WITH S :E "V E K, .A. I. "W O O D C TJ T S . 



cA * 

NEW YORK: / # ° 

PlUUilSHED BY L. & J. W. Feuchtwanger, 55 CEBAR STREET. 

1870. 



00^ 




Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1870, 
By Dr. Lewis Feuchtw anger, 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for 
the Southern District of New York. 




Uobbri Malcolm, Pbwtb*, 49 Cedar Street, N. Y. 



PREFACE 



The object of this Treatise on Soluble or Water Glass is 
to give some information to the many inquiries, which have 
been directed to the Author for some years past, in what 
manner and purpose this valuable preparation, so highly 
recommended by the various scientific journals, can be 
usefully employed. There is, as yet, no book published, 
treating on all its applications, with the exception of a 
pamphlet in French by Kuhlman in 1859, containing 
mostly memoirs to the French Academy and the application 
of the water glass by calico printers and cotton manufacturers. 
It is for this reason that the Author felt the necessity of com- 
piling, all that is scattered, about the various uses of the solu- 
ble glass, in all the journals and Patent-Office reports. Not a 
day passes without receiving orders for samples, either in dry 
liquid or jelly state, with particular requests for explicit direc- 
tions ; nor does a day pass without being importuned by 
strangers and curious people, all desirous for information how 
the soluble glass would answer for many purposes in domes- 



IV. TREFACE. 

tic economy. The soap-maker, who 1ms been using it in 
Europe and this country for a number of years, wants to 
know more on the subject of producing a cheap and good 
soap. For slates, for a good and cheap whitewash, 
for a tire-proof paint, for a hoop-skirt or shirt-collar, for a 
mucilage, a fire and water proof cement, and for many hun- 
dred other uses the inquiries are made ; and thousands of 
samples have, for the last ten years, been distributed to the 
inquisitive and speculative applicants. 

It is generally known that the Author was the first to 
introduce the soluble glass in the United States, and has 
devoted much time in experimenting with it ; and he has 
succeeded, after many fruitless trials, to create a demand in 
many branches of industry. From the extensive list of 
patents Issued in Europe and the United States, he lias col- 
lected ail information, along with that obtained from the 
scientific and practical journals, and experimenters will find 
in this Treatise the various uses and applications. Kuhlman's 
Pamphlet, the Mining and Engineering Journal, the Trans- 
action^ of the American Institute, the Manufacturer and 
Builder, Scientific American, the Annual of Scientific Dis- 
covery, have all furnished material for this Treatise. 

Many interesting topics, such as the origin of the saltpetre 
and nitrate of soda and the manufacture of blanc fix, had to 
be related, and will, no doubt, interest the general reader. 

Particular attention has been bestowed upon tin formation 
of hydraulic cements and artificial stone, for tin' rea 
more inquiries and experiments are performed in this brand) 
than in any other of domestic economy; the natural stones, 



PREFACE. V. 

suck as the brownstone, sandstone, limestone and brick build- 
ing, will, sooner or later, after an exposure to the atmospheric 
elements and rain and frost, become decomposed ; cracks 
and fissures will then produce the deterioration, while coated 
with the soluble glass, and mixing the mortar with the same 
and impregnating the bricks, much is gained for their pre- 
servation. 

The editor of the Scientific American states, in a late 
article, that "it is somewhat remarkable that long before 
this the art of making artificial stone has not been brought to 
perfection. Yet, if we may judge from the great and increas- 
ing variety, of processes, patented and otherwise, which now 
press their claims upon public notice, the time is ripe for the 
introduction of any process which can demonstrate practically 
its capacity to fulfill the requirements of the case." He states 
farther : " We have, for the last two years, availed ourselves 
of every opportunity afforded us to examine and test speci- 
mens of artificial stone, and have met w T ith many kinds which 
have very little merit. Some, however, are really good 
stones, and, as such, must, in our opinion, come largely 
into use." 

The silicification of R. R. sleepers, wooden rails and blocks for 
pavement is in importance next to the preparation of artificial 
stone. The comparison of the wooden and iron rails ha9 
also been clearly stated here, and the future will, no doubt 
bring to light many facts here stated but not yet put to prac- 
tice. The advantages of the wooden block pavement over 
all other kinds such as Macadamizing, gravelling, cinders, 
boulders and stone blocks are numerous, and if properly laid 



VI. PREFACK. 

will withstand long years of the hardest kind of travel, and 
there are but two important points in the wooden pave 1 
to be observed, which are a firm and even foundal 
and the good silicification of the foundation planks and 
blocks. 

The reason why the Author has devoted so much space 
upon hydraulic limes, mortars, paints, whitewashes and the 
preparation for guarding timber against dry rot and confla- 
gration is solely to prove and make it plausible that the 
application of soluble glass possesses great advantages, and 
may. with very little expense, give additional safeguards. 

The receipts and directions for preparing an imm 
number of the most useful vehicles, cements tor buil 
and sidewalks, paints, varnishes, etc., cannot but be very 
acceptable. 

At the close of the treatise the author added several 
- which refer to the main subject, such as that on car- 
bon and carbonic acid, in order to explain the wonderful 
properties of the latter, the effect the same has in ; 
cation of the carbonic acid gas to hydraulic lime, and i 
construction of buildings. The other, on limestone, is pn 
for the purpose of throwing some light, in a phil 
point of view, on the sources and functions of this all pei 
ing natural substance. 

Tli essay on the alkalies potash and s - written 

merely to show the Bources from where they are derived. 

Tiie article on sand or silica is partially taken from the 
trans of the polytechnical branch ot % the American 

Institute, before whom the author delivered a lecture on this- 



PREFACE. Vll. 

subject, and he has added as a guide for the glass manufac- 
turer all the details for producing plain and colored glass, 
and an extract of an article on the green sand of New Jersey, 
by Joseph B. Lyman, on account of the peculiar properties 
of that substance, which may at some future day be employed 
in the production of silicates. The manufacturers of glass 
will find this treatise a useful guide. 



CONTENTS OF THIS TREATISE. 






Preface, Pages 1 to 12 

Preparation by Fuchs, 14 

" Doebereiner, 15 

Application at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 15 

" " Houses of Parliament, 18 

Liebig's Proposition of the Infusorial Earth, 20 

Silica and Quartz Synonymous, , 23 

Physical Description of the Whole Family, 25 

The Use of Alkalies, Salt Cake, Fluorspar and Arsenic, 40 

Manufacture of the Various Kinds of Soluble Glass, 44 

Plate of the Apparatus, 

Description of Siemens Apparatus, and Directions, 48 

The Circular for the Uses of Soluble Glass, 52 

Chloride of Calcium Gives the Indurating Action. *54 

Ransome's Experiments with Siliceous Stone, 55 

Author's Artificial Stone, 56 

Great Improvement by Hydrofluoric Acid, . 57 

Silification of Chalk, 58 

Hydraulic Limestone and Mortar. '. . . 60 

The Different Kinds of Lime, 64 

Portland Cement, Roman Cement, 65 

Plaster Cement and Keene's Cement, 66 

Hydraulic Lime from the Puzzuolanas, 67 

Fremy and Vicate Theories of Hydranlicity, 68 

Deville's and Ballard's Application of Magnesia, 71 

Author's Discourse on Cements before the Polytechnic Association, . . 73 

Hydraulic Cement from Kondout, N. Y,, 75 

Kuhlman's Patent Lime Cement 78 

Bouilly's French Cement from Pebbles, 79 

Common Mortar and Hydraulic Cement, 80 

The Prevention of Wall-Damp, 81 

Another Mode of Application to Damp Walls and Cellars, 85 

Fleury's Remarks on the Alkaline Silicates, 87 

American Limestone as Hydraulic Mortar, 90 

The Theoretical Causes of the Hardening Process, 92 

German Hydraulic Cement, 94 

Ancient Mortars, 97 

Solidifying- Property Depends upon Clay, 102 

Oertley's Silica Stone, Ill 



X. CONTENTS. 

Silicification Process, Page 112 

Remarkable Reaction of Hardening Porous Bodies, 118 

Formation of Saltpeter and "Nitrate of Soda Explained, 120 

Silicification of Sandstone, White Lead, Chrome, &c., 124 

Silicate Painting on Stone, 126 

Stereochromie Painting, 127 

Application of Hydrofluoric Acid as a Fluo-Silicated Lime, 131 

Stereochromic Painting for the Easel, 13T 

Permanent White, or Artificial Sulphate Baryta, : 138 

Preparation of Blanc Fix, 189 

Silicification of Wood, 140 

The Construction of the Munich Theater, 141 

Full Directions by the Author, 143 

Letheby's Remarks on Dead Oil, 147 

Violittier's il " Desication of Wood, 148 

Wooden Roof Shingles and Farm Houses, 149 

Preservation of Wood by Immersion, 151 

Champty and Payen, 152 

Popular Method of Guarding against Decay, 155 

Methods Pursued by the British Navy, 156 

The French Method of Preservation, 157 

Wooden Railway and. Wood Paving, 158 

Pressor's System Explained, 162 

Timber Rot and Seasoning, 163 

Resiniferous Timber Most Durable, 167 

Robbins' Process for Preserving Wood, 171 

His Discovery of One of the Lost Arts of the Egyptians a Fallacy, — 172 

Patent of 1865 Anticipated by Moll in 1835, 1T5 

Recommended by Dr. Krieg in 1858, 176 

The Simplest Application for Wooden Roof Shingles, 176 

Street Pavements Compared, 180 

Broadway Pavement do 200 

Fisk Concrete Pavement, 200 

Nicolson " 201 

McGonegal " 202 

Stowe " 203 

Brown & Miller 4 ' 204 

Bobbins - '* 204 

Stafford " 204 

Seeley's Concrete " 205 

Wooden versus Stone Pavement, 205 

Mode of Application of Wooden Pavement, 206 

How to Apply the Soluble Glass, 207 

How Many Square Feet of Wall Covering, 208 

What Dilution, 209 

Preservation of Brick Walls, 209 

Protection of All Wooden Utensils against Fire, Dry Rot and Leakage, 210 

Silica Cement for Bottoms of Iron Ships, 212 

Most Adhesive Insoluble Cement, 212 

Cheapest and Best Whitewash for In and Out Door Work, Fences, Ac., 213 



CONTEXTS. 



XI. 



Aquariuni Cement, 

Water-Tank Lining, 

Tali's System of Concrete 

Concrete Bridge in London, . ' 

Soap Substitute of Soluble Glass. 

Sine Substitute, 

Mucilage the Trade Mark of Solution 

Enamelling of Culinary Vessels 

Porcelain, Glass and Metal Cement 

Milk Cement 

Marble " 

Zinc " 

Foundation Wall Cement. 

Gypsum " 

Hard Adhesive ;; 

Drain Pipe Resisting a Pressure of 600 lbs. to the inch 

Stove Cracks Cement, 

Cistern ;t 

The Most Refractory Cement, 

Beton Coignet Building, 

Essays Relating to this Treatise 

The Latest Tables of Elements 

On Carbonic. Acid, 

On Limestones 

Their Origin, 

Their Preponderance in the Newer Formations 

How to Estimate the Relations of Finite Powers of Man and the Attri- 
butes of an Infinite Being, 

Lime is the Medium between Organic Beings and the Inorgani- 
Progress, 

Lime is the Oxide Calcium, which is One of the Nine Elements (i 
Constituents of Kocks, 

Lyell's Opposition to the General Opinion 

The Origin either from Deposition or Chemical Precipitation 

Human Skeletons in the British and Paris Museums 

The Coral Reefs Constructed by Polypiferous Zoophytes 

Their Operations Described by Capt. Kotzebue 

They are 2,000 feet Thick, and Required 190,000 years for their Con- 
struction, 

The Tropics the Hot- Bed for their Formation, 

The Principal Kinds of Coral Rock, 

The Reef-Building Coral, as Described in Hirsch' s New Journal, 
The Arts 

The Other Organic Materials Forming Limestone Rocks, 

The Cncrystalline and Crystalline Limestone Rocks, 

All Other Varieties of Limestone 

The Hot Springs of Arkansas, 

The Travertin Formations 

The Chalk Formation, 

The Cretaceous Marl of New Jersey, 



Page 213 
214 
214 
217' 
219 
221 
■221 
•222 
222 
223 
223 
224 
224 
224 
225 
225 
226 
226 

22r 

-)•_> — 230 
286 
23JT 

273 
•273 
274 

•276 

276 

277 
278 
278 
275 
28CT 
281 

282 
2-2 
283 

286 
289 

290 
291 
292 

293 
297 
293 



XII. CONTENTS. 

The Division of the Cretaceous Period Page 800 

Metamorphie Hocks Explained 301 

New York Island's Geology 301 

Eight Rocks Compose the Island, 301 

Dr. Stevens' Ideas Regarding the Island, 303 

The Prevalence of Limestones on the Island 303 

They Form the Sedimentary Material 304 

The Aqueous. Volcanic. Plutonic and Metamorphie Division of Early 

Day* 305 

The Present Division in Stratified, l T n stratified and Vein Condition... 305 
The Division in Aires, such as Azoic, Silurian. Devonian, Carboniferous. 

Reptilian. Mammalian Age, and that of Man. 30ft 

Another Division of the Geological Time, such as Azoic. Pa'jpozoic. 

Mesozoic, Cenozoic, and Era of Mind. 307 

Lyell's Division of the Tertiary Period, as Eocene, Miocene and Plio- 
cene Periods, 308 

The Wealden Period is 150,000 Years Old, 30U 

The Origin of the Alkalies, Potassium and Sodium, and Application 

in the Soluble Glass, &c 

The Manufacture of Soda Ash Detailed 314 

Silica, or Sand, Fully Explained 316 

Description of the Greensand of New Jersey. 318 

The Physical and Chemical Characters of Quartz, 324 

The Many Varieties of Quartz Mineralogically Described, 326 

History of Glass Making 328 

Materials of Glass 329 

The Various Divisions in the Kinds of Glass in the London Exhibition 

of 1851 332 

The Present Classification according to the Constituents 333 

The Composition of All the Varieties of Glass 340 

The Artificial (Jems, 341 

Idea* oo the Uses of Glass. 348 



SOLUBLE GLASS, 



Also called water glass, liquid quartz, or alkaline 
silicate, consists essentially of silex and one or two 
alkalies heated to fusion ; it is, therefore, a silicate, 
either as silicate of potassa, silicate of soda, or a 
mixture of these two alkalies, a silicate of potassa and 
lime, the composition of Bohemian glass, or a silicate 
of soda and lime, like the English crown or spread 
glass ; and if there is oxide of lead added to the mix-' 
ture of silex and alkalies, and heated to continued 
fusion, we obtain thereby a flint glass, crystal glass, 
or strass, a paste used in mock jewelry. 

According to the quantify of alkali employed in 
the mixture, the product is made soluble or insoluble. 
Bottle and window glass, for instance, which con- 
tain less alkali and some oxide of iron and alumina 
(clay), are more difficult of fusion than other kinds. 
The soluble glass was brought to practical uses by 
Professor Fuchs, of Munich in Bavaria, in the year 
1823, by igniting strongly in a refractory furnace or 
crucible for six hours, a mixture of 10 parts of pearl 
ashes, 15 parts of powdered quartz, or fine sand, and 
1 part charcoal ; the mass was then pulverized and 



14 SOLUBLE GLASS. 

added in small portions to boiling water, until the 
whole is dissolved and evaporated to a specific gra- 
vity of 1.25, at which point the carbonic acid of the 
atmospheric air ceases to decompose it. The highest 
concentration of the liquid is 42° B ; when still 
more evaporated it is obtained in a solid form, re- 
sembling common glass, but much softer and more 
fusible. The liquid standing about 30° B is, how- 
ever, the most proper menstruum for application to 
wood, and preventing the same from being attacked 
or kindled by sparks of fire, such as shingle roofs, 
wooden bridges and farm houses. Fuchs prepared 
four different liquids, and employed them in his ex- 
periments : 

1. The simple water glass, made from potassa. 

2. The soda water glass. 

3. The compound of both. 

4. Another liquid which he used for fixing paints 
on a coating on wood, and called the jelly liquid. 

In order to demonstrate the utility of the water 
glass in making wood fireproof, and on the occasion 
of the burning of the Royal Theatre at Munich, a 
wooden shanty was, by order of the King, erected, 
and coated inside and outside with a weak liquid of 
silicate of potassa, and was set on fire on each corner ; 
to the satisfaction of all spectators it resisted the ele- 
ment nobly, and merely charred the wooden struc- 



SOLUBLE GLASS. 15 

ture, without producing a life tire; and from that 
time the water glass was introduced in Germany. 
A few years later the same liquid was introduced in 
the manufacturing districts of England as a substi- 
tute for cow's dung by the cotton mills, and was 
called " Dunging Salt." 

The author having studied with Doebereiner, a 
professor of practical chemistry in Jena, who was 
engaged in experiments on water glass, and who 
proposed an alteration in its composition, such as the 
compound of potash and soda, or 72 parts of carbon- 
ate of potash, 854 parts of carbonate of soda, and 152 
parts of finely pulverized quartz, w T hich proved to be 
a better substance, conceived the idea that water 
glass may be profitably employed in this country for 
many purposes. In company with ship captains and 
builders he offered to substitute it for coppering ves- 
sels, which is attended with that expensive metal 
the copper sheathing, and undertook to prepare the . 
ship's timbers in such a manner that the cells of the 
wood could be filled up with Silica, or, in other 
words, to silicify them, and produce a petrification 
of the organic substance, all of which at a very in- 
considerable expense, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, 
he was permitted by the Ordnance Department, 
under the direction of Commodore Perry, then the 
Captain of the Yard, to perform the experiments with 
the spiles on the various docks, which were destroyed 



l(i SOLUBLE (JI.ass. 

by the worms [Teredo nuvalis) so fast that they had 
to be replaced every three years. Also the cannon 
balls, exposed to the weather, becoming rusty and 

worthless in a few years, were varnished with his 
own preparation, and the addition of asphaltum, and 
his experiments proved highly satisfactory, as in both 
instances of applications many years afterwards indi- 
cated their preservation. 

The water glass was neglected for many years ex- 
cept by the military authorities in Prussia, and we 
hear that, the soldiers were instructed to wash their 
linen, and the State Prison at Spandau introduced it 
for washing the prisoners' under garments ; and it 
wa i proved so economical that one gallon of concen- 
trated liquid was sufficient for washing 1,000 pieces. 
The soap manufacturers began to use it in England 
for producing a cheap soap. Liebig devoted, in the 
year 1850, much attention to the subject, and at the 
same time Kuhlmann introduced it as a new paint 
under the name of stereochromic painting, for orna- 
menting the interior of houses, lie applied the fluid 
silicate of potassa, obtained by dissolving flints in 
can-tic alkali, with the aid of water of a very high 
temperature, to harden chalk and porous stone; for 
he observed that on soaking chalk with this fluid 
>ili<-ate, a change took place: part of the chalk, com- 
bining with the silicic acid of the silicate of potash, 
becoming converted into silico carbonate of lime. 



SOLUBLE GLASS, 17 

tlie carbonic acid, thus set free, combined with 
the potash, in time, particularly when assisted by 
heat and dry air, the coating of silieo carbonate 
was found to pass into a true compact deposit of 
silica, hard enough to scratch glass. The solution 
of silicate of potash could be applied either with a 
brush or a syringe, the surface being first cleaned and 
scraped. Three applications were considered suffi- 
cient. Although successful in the laboratory, this 
method failed when applied to buildings, because a 
dry atmosphere is needed during the whole period of 
hardening. Not long after this suggestion had been 
made by Kuhlman, the English manufacturer, Ran- 
some, of Ipswich, engaged in the manufacture of 
silicate of soda, following up the above experiments, 
attempted to fix the solution, when absorbed with 
the stone, to produce a double decomposition by 
absorbing another solution, thus leaving an insoluble 
deposit within the substance of the absorbent stones 
on which it was desired to act. He found that, by 
a weak acid solution, he could set free the silica, but 
in that state the deposited mineral had no cohesion. 
Following up, however, the application of the fluid 
silicate by a small portion of chloride of calcium (a 
waste product from the salines and acetic acid manu- 
facturers), it resulted that the chlorine, parting from 
the calcium, attacked the soda of the silicate, forming 
common salt, which is easily dissolved away, while 



18 SOLUBLE GLASS. 

the silica acid, set free and combining with the lime, 
formed with it silicate of lime. This mineral is 
nearly insoluble, very hard, and adheres with great 
tenacity to foreign substances, as is illustrated in 
common mortar. Silicate of lime thus formed resists 
carbonic acid and dilute sulphuric acid, and is little 
affected by any of the common alkalies or ammonia. 
The effect of this treatment on stones that have 
not already been inserted into buildings has been 
very favorable, and they appear to have stood without 
decay under exposures sufficient to produce much 
injury on the same stone unprotected and applied on 
a large scale to buildings that have already shown 
symptoms of decay, the result is less satisfactory : 
but years must elapse before a very decided opinion 
can be given on the process. After some time we 
will be able to see the result in the Houses of Parlia- 
ment and Westminster Abbey, where the magnesian 
limestone has been treated by this process. 

A combination of Kuhlman's process with a tempo- 
rary wash of some bituminous substance has been 
tried on a large scale in the Speaker's Court of the 
Houses of Parliament, by Szeroling, which will like- 
wise bo decided alter some time upon its superiority. 
The manufacture of the water glass, or soluble 
silicate, or soluble glass, has only been known since 
our present time, although the various kinds of glass, 
imitation of gems, belongs to antiquity, for Pliny 



SOLUBLE GLASS. 19 

states " that glass was first discovered by accident in 
Syria; at the mouth of the river Belus, by certain 
merchants driven thither by the fortune of the sea r 
and obliged to continue there and dress their victuals 
by making a tire on the ground, where there being 
great store of the herb kali, that plant burning to 
ashes, its salts, mixed and incorporated with sand or 
stones fit to vitrify or make glass." The word kali 
was explained by Boerhave as one of the materials of 
glass, salt and sand ; the salt here used is procured 
from a sort of ashes, brought from the Levant, called 
polverine or rochetta, which ashes are those of a sort 
of water plant called kali, of the species of that found 
in some parts of England, called frog-grass, or crab- 
grass, cut down in summer, dried in the sun, and 
burnt in heaps, either on the ground or on iron 
grates, the ashes falling into a pit, grow into a hard 
mass or stone, fit for use." This material evidently 
means the kelp, which was burnt and converted into 
Barilla. It is also certain that Kunkel, in 1679,- 
states that the art of glass was already brought to its 
highest perfection, and expressed that Neri in his 
treatise, " De Arte Vitraria," has communicated 
complete knowledge of artificial gems — much is said 
of flexible glass not rotting, of a fusible or soluble 
glass, of which Van TIelmont, the chemist of the 
first part of the seventeenth century, knew nothing. 
The improvements in the manufacture of the soluble 



00 SOLUBLE GLASS. 

glass, particularly that ot' soda, were of great im- 
portance. He bad, in the first place, discarded the 
Band, which he did not find compact enough for pro- 
ducing a good paint, and substituted the Hints, found 
in the chalk : this species of >ilex he exposes under a 
pressure of 7-8 atmospheric, in an iron cauldron, to 
a hot soda lye standing 38°, which process was pa- 
tented by the brothers Siemens, in the year 1845, with 
this difference, that they produce a liquid at a very 
high temperature corresponding in vapors of 4-5 
atmospheres, by which process they obtain for 3-4 
time the quantity of silica to a thin liquid. 

Liebig proposes the employment of the infusorial 
earth, which dissolves readily the caustic soda lye. 
whereby he obtains 24<> parts of silica jelly from 120 
part> infusorial earth, and 75 parts soda ash. It is 
well known that the infusorial earth is pretty pure 
silica of 87 per cent, and 8 per cent, water. The 
beds of Bilin, in Bohemia, and belonging to the fresh 
water Tertiary, have a thickness of 14 feet, also in 
Planitz, in Saxony. Ehrenberg estimates that about 
18,000 cubic feet of the siliceous organisms are an 
nually formed in the harbor of Wismar, in the Baltic 
S >a ; the deposit of infusorial earth in Richmond, Va., 
contains over LOO species, and forms a thick stratum. 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 



This substance is an oxyde of silicium, and being 
the main body of our preparation deserves a full and 
detailed description. 

Silicium is the metallic basis of silica, or silex, and 
is equally abundant with oxygen as a constituent of 
the solid surface of the globe, and also constituting a 
large portion of aerolites, from the regions of space, 
and this metallic base was discovered by Berzelius, in 
1S23, and is obtained artificially in the following 
manner: — Weil dried silico fluoride of potassium, 10 
parts, are mixed with 8 or 9 parts potassium in an 
iron or glass tube, and the potassium fused and 
stirred with the salt by an iron wire. It is then 
heated by a spirit lamp, when it suddenly becomes 
ignited from the reduction of silica by the potassium 
forming a brown mixture of fluoride and siliciuret of 
potassium. It is thrown in cold water, when hydro- 
gen is evolved, the potassium of the silica not being 
oxydized by water and the silicium separating. 
When the effervescence has ceased, the solution is 
poured off, fresh cold water added and poured off, 
until it ceases to be alkaline, when boiling water is 

1* 



2*2 SILEX, OR SILICA. 

used to wash the silicium as long as it extracts any- 
thing. 

Silicium is inflammable in the air. by heat, about 
one-third burning to silica, which removed by fluo- 
hydric acid, leaves a dark, chocolate, brown powder, 
heavier than oil of vitriol, is combustible either in 
the air or oxygen, or even when gently ignited with 
saltpetre. 

Silica, or oxide of silicium, is synonymous with 
silicic acid, silex and pure sand, or quartz, in its 
various forms and appearances, and constitutes a 
very large proportion of the solid crust of the globe, 
dud is the principal constituent of all simple mine- 
rals, and forms a greater variety of salts than any 
other acid. It is easily prepared pure from pow- 
dered quartz, sand, Felspar, or other silicious 
minerals, by fusing them with four times their 
weight of a mixture of carbonate of potassa and 
soda, or by either carbonate alone, dissolving when 
in dilute muriatic acid, filtering and evaporating the 
solution to dryness by a gentle heat, digesting in 
muriatic acid, filtering and washing with hot water. 

This silica has two modifications, the one soluble 
in water and acids, the other insoluble. The soluble 
is that obtained in the above process for preparing 
silica, and is always formed by fusing silicates with 
alkalies, but may also be formed by boiling fine Silex 
with strong alkaline solution-. 



SILEX, OR SILICA, 



23 



It is soluble in water and acids, and when the so- 
lutions are concentrated it usually separates as a 
jelly [gelatinous silica], and when evaporated to 
dryness, passes into the insoluble modification. 

Silica is a white, gritty powder, insoluble in water 
and acids, infusible in the highest heat of our fur- 
naces, but fusible in a stream of oxygen driven 
through an alcohol flame. It fuses in this case to a 
clear glass, which may be drawn out into flexible 
threads. When the fused bead is dropped in water, 
it becomes so hard as to indent a steel pestle and 
mortar. It is the feeblest acid at common tempera- 
tures, but by a high heat can expel all volatile acids. 

Quartz is found in nature crystallized in a great 
variety of forms, the rhombohedral prevailing, and 
for the most part hemihedral to the rhombohedron, 
or tetrahedral to the hexagonal prism. The annexed 
two figures give some idea of its occurrence : 




The cleavage is very indistinct, sometimes effected 
by plunging a heated crystal in cold water. The 



24 BILEX, OR SILICA. 

crystals are either very short or very much elon- 
gated, sometimes line acicular usually implanted 
by one extremity of the prism, occasionally twisted 
or bint. The prismatic faces commonly striated 
horizontally, and thus distinguishable, in distorted 
crystals from the pyramid. Crystals often grouped 
by juxtaposition, not proper twins, frequently in 
radiated masses with a surface of pyramids, or 
in druses having a surface of pyramids or short 
crystals. Herkimer and Ulster Counties, of the 
State of New York, produce quartz crystals of the 
most complicated forms, which occur from the size 
of a pin's head to that of a foot. Quarts is also 
found massive, from the coarse or fine granular to 
flint-like or crypto-crystalline ; sometimes mamillary 
-talactitic, and in connectionary forms. 

Quartz has a hardness — 7, and a specific gravity of 
2.65 ; a vitreous lustre sometimes inclining to resin- 
ous ; splendent and nearly dull; is colorless when 
pure, but often having various shades of yellow, red, 
brown, green, blue and black. The streak is white 
of pnre varieties ; of impure often the same as the 
colors, but much paler. Quartz is transparent and 
opaque; its fracture is perfect conchoidal and sub- 
conchoidal, is tough, brittle and friable. The polar- 
ization of quartz is circular, there being a colored 
centre instead of a central cross, and the rings of 
coin]' around enlarging as the analyzer is turned to 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 25 

the right in right-handed crystals, or left, in left- 
handed, and colored spirals are seen which rotate to 
the right or left when the incident light and emerged 
light are polarized, one circularly, and the other 
plane. 

Pare silica, which has the symbol of Si, consists 
of 53-33 parts oxygen, and ±6-67 silicon — 100. It 
is unaltered if brought alone before the blow-pipe, 
but with soda, it dissolves with effervescence ; it is 
unacted upon by any salt of phosphorus ; it is only 
soluble in fluohydric acid. There are two varieties 
of quartz in existence — 

I. The crystallized, or phenoerystalline, which is, 
vitreous in lustre. 

II. The fluid-like, massive, or crypto-crystalline. 
The first division includes all ordinary vitreous 

quartz, Avhether having crystalline faces or not ; 
wliile the second variety has been acted upon some- 
what more by attrition and chemical agents, as fluo- 
ric acid, than those of the first. 

The following species of quartz belong to the phe- 
nocrystalline, or vitreous varieties : 

1. The ordinary crystallized quartz, rock crystal, 
which is the colorless quartz, or nearly so, whether in 
distinct crystals or not. 

a. The regular crystals, or limpid quartz. 

b. The right-handed crystals. 

c. Left-handed crystals. 



20 SBLBXj OR SILICA. 

d. Cavernous crystals, having deep cavities par- 

allel to the faces, occasioned by the inter- 
ference of impurities during their forma- 
tion. 

e. Cap quartz, made up of separable layers or 

caps, one to the deposit of a little clayey 
material at intervals in the progress of the 
crystal. 

f. Drusy quartz, a crust of small or minute 
quartz crystals. 

g. Kadiated quartz, often separable into radia- 
ted parts, having pyramidal terminations. 

h. Fibrous, rarely delicately so, from Cape of 
Good Hope. 

2. Asteriated quartz, star quartz, containing within 
the crystal whitish or colored radiations along the 
diametral planes. Part, if not all, asteriated quartz 
is asteriated in polarization, as already remarked. 

3. Amethystine quartz, amethyst, clear purple or 
blueish- violet ; the color is supposed to be due to 
manganese, the shade of violet is usually deepest pa- 
rallel to the planes R. 

4. Rose, rose red or pink quartz. It becomes paler 
on exposure, common, massive; and then usually 
much cracked, lustre sometimes a little greasy. The 
action is, according to Fuchs,due to titanic acid; the 
gen tuI impression K however, that its color is owing 
to manganese. 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 27 

5. Yellow, talse topaz, yellow and pellucid, or 
nearly so, resembling somewhat yellow topaz ; but 
very differant in crystallization, and in absence ot 
cleavage. 

6. Smoky quartz ; the Cairngorm stone. It is 
smoky yellow to smoky brown, and often transpa- 
rent, but varying to brownish black, and then nearly 
opaque, in thick crystals. The color is probably due 
to titanic acids, as crystals containing rutile are usu- 
ally smoky. It is called Cairngorm, from the local- 
ity in Scotland. 

7. Milky, milk white, and nearly opaque ; lustre 
often greasy, called then greasy quartz. 

8. Siderite, or sapphire quartz, of indigo, or Ber- 
lin blue colors. A variety of quartz occurring in an 
impure limestone at Golling, in Salzburg. 

9. Sagenitic, containing within acicular crystals ot 
other minerals : these acicular crystals may be rutile, 
or black Tourmaline, or Goethite, stilbite, asbestos, 
actinolite, hornblende, or epidote. 

10. Cat's eye, exhibiting opalescence, but without 
prismatic colors, especially when cut incabochon, an 
elfect due to fibres of asbestos. 

11. Aventurine quartz, spangled with scales ot 
mica or other mineral. 

12. Impure quartz, from the presence of distinct 
minerals distributed densely through the mass, such 
as ferruginous, either red or yellow oxide of iron, 



2s 



SILEX, OK SILICA, 



chloritic from chlorite, aetinolitic, micaceous, arena- 
ceous owing to sand. 

Quartz crystals also occur penetrated by various 
minerals as topaz, corundum, chrysoberyl, garnet, 
different species of hornblende and Pyroxene groups, 
kyanite, zeolites, caleite and other carbonates of ru- 
tile, stilbite, hematite, Goethite, magnetite, fluorite, 
gold, silver, anthracite, &c. As quartz has been 
crystallized through the aid of hot waters or of 
steam, in all ages down to the present, and is the 
most common ingredient of rocks, there is good rea- 
son why it should thus be found the enveloper of 
other crystals. 

13. Quartz containing liquids in cavities. These 
liquids are seen to move w T ith the change of position 
of the crystal, provided an air bubble be present in 
the cavity ; they may be detected also by the refrac- 
tion of light ; the liquid is either pure water, or a 
mineral solution, or petroleum-like liquid. 

II. The erypto-crystalline varieties of quartz are 
the following : 

1. Chalcedony; it has the lustre nearly of wax, 
and is either transparent or translucent ; the color is 
white grayish, pale brown to dark brown, black, 
tendon color common, sometimes delicate blue; ako 
of other shades, and then having other names; it is 
often mammillary, botryoidal, stalactitic, and oceur- 
ing lining or filling cavities in rocks. 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 29 

2. Carnelian ; a clear red chalcedony, pale to deep 
in shade, also brownish red to brown ; the latter 
called sardonyx, reddish brown by transmitted light. 

3. Chrysoprase ; an apple green chalcedony; the 
color is due to the presence of oxide of nickel. 

4. Prase ; translucent and dull leek green ; taking 
its name from the Greek 7tpGja6v, a leek. 

5. Plasma; a rather bright green to leek green, 
and sometimes nearly emerald green color, and sub- 
translucent or feebly translucent, sometimes dotted 
with white. 

Heliotrope, or bloodstone, is the same stone essen- 
tially, with small spots of red jasper, looking like 
drops of blood. 

The jasper of the ancients was a semi-transparent 
or translucent stone, and included, in Pliny's time r 
all bright colored chalcedony, excepting the carne- 
lian ; the same author gives special prominence to 
sky blue and green, and mentions also a shade of 
purple, a rose color, the color of the morning sky in 
autumn ; sea green, sepenthine color (yellow, like 
sepentine), smoke color, but in general there is a 
tinge of blue, whatever the shade. 

6. Agate ; a variegated chalcedony ; the colors 
are either banded or in clouds, or due to visible im- 
purities. 

(Handed agate), where the bands form delicate 
parallel lines of white, tendonlike, waxlike, pale and 



30 SILEX, OR SILICA. 

dark brown and black colors, and sometimes bluish 
and other shades, they follow waving or zigzag 
courses, and are occasionally concentric circular, as 
in the eye agate. The fine translucent agates gradu- 
ated into coarse and opaque kinds. The bands are 
the edges of layers of deposition, the agate having 
been formed by a deposit of silica, from solutions 
intermittently supplied in irregular cavities in rocks, 
and deriving their concentric waving courses from 
the irregularities of the walls of the cavity. As the 
cavity cannot contain enough of the solution to fill 
it with silica, an open hole has been supposed to be 
retained on one side to permit the continued supply, 
but it is more probable that it passes through the 
outer layers by osmosis, the denser solution outside 
thus supplying silica as fast as it is deposited within. 
The colors are due to traces of organic matter, or of 
oxides of iron, manganese, or titanium, and largely 
to differences in rate of deposition. The layers dif- 
fer in porosity, and therefore in the rate at which 
they are etched by fluoric acid, and consequently 
the etching process brings out the different layers, 
and makes engravings that will print exact pictures 
of the agate. Owing also to the unequal porosity, 
abates may be varied in color by artificial means. 

Irregularly clouded agate, the colors various, as 
in banded agate. 



31 

A whitish, clouded variety, which Pliny has de- 
scribed and given fully the characters. 

Y\ Colored agate, due to visible impurities ; a 
moss agate, or mocha stone, filled with brown moss- 
like or dentritic forms, distributed through the mass 
of dentritic agate, containing brown or black den- 
tritic markings. These two have been fully de- 
scribed by Pliny as dentrachates. 

There are also eight agatized woods, wood petrified 
with clouded agate. 

7. Onyx, like agate, in consisting of layers of 
different colors, but the layers are in even planes, 
and the banding therefore straight, and hence its use 
for cameos, the head being cut in color, and another 
serving as the background. 

The colors of the best are perfectly well defined, 
and white and black, or white, brown and black 
alternate. 

8. Sardonyx, like onyx in structure, but includes 
layers of carnelian, along with others of white, or 
whitish and brown, and sometimes black colors. 

9. Agate jasper. An agate, consisting of jasper 
with veinings and cloudings of chalcedony. 

10. Siliceous sinter. Irregularly cellular quartz, 
formed by deposition from waters containing silica, 
or soluble silicates in solution. 

11. Flint. Somewhat allied to chalcedony, but 
more opaque and of all colors, usually gray, smoky 



32 SILEX, OB SILICA. 

brown, and brownish black. The exterior is often 
whitish, from mixture with lime or chalk, in which 
it is imbedded. Lustre barely glistening, subvitre- 
ous ; breaks with a deeply conchoidal fracture and a 
-harp cutting edge. The flint of the chalk formation 
sista largely of the remains of infusoria, sponges, 
and other marine productions. This mineral con- 
tains, according to Fuchs, partly soluble silica. 

12. Hornstone. It resembles flint, is more brittle, 
and fracture more splintry. Chert is a term often 
applied to hornstoiie, and to any impure flinty rock, 
including the jaspers. 

13. Basanite, lydian stone, or touchstone. A vel- 
vet black siliceous stone or flinty jasper, used on ac- 
count of its hardness and black color for trying the 
purity of the precious metals. The color left on 
the stone after rubbing the metal across it indicates 
to the experienced eye the amount of alloy. It is 
not splintry, like the hornstone : it passes into a com- 
pact, fissile, siliceous or flinty rock of grayish or other 
colors, called siliceous slate, and resembles ordinary 
jasper, of various shades. 

14. Jasper. An impure opaque colored quartz, 

<i. The reducing to hematite, or sesquioxide of 
iron. 

h. The vol low or brown, colored by the hydrous 
sesquioxide of iron, and becoming red when 
so heated a- to drive off the water. 



33 

c. The dark green and brownish green. 

d. The grayish blue. 

e. Blackish or brown black. 

f. Striped or ribbon jasper, having the colors in 

broad stripes. 
g. Egyptian jasper in nodules, which are zoned 
in brown and yellow colors. 
Porcelain jasper is nothing but a baked clay, and 
differs from true jasper in being fusible on the edges 
before the blowpipe. Red porphyry, or its base, re- 
sembles jasper, but is also fusible on the edges, being 
usually an impure felspar. 

Quartz is also found in the following forms : 

1. Granular quartz, or quartz rock, which consists 
of quartz grains very firmly compacted, the grains 
often hardly distinct. 

2. Quartzose sandstone. 

3. Quartz-conglomerate. A rock made of pebbles 
of quartz with sand. The pebbles are sometimes 
jasper or chalcedony, and make a beautiful stone 
when polished. 

4. Itacolumite, or flexible sandstone. A friable 
sand rock, consisting mainly of quartz sand, but con- 
taining a little talc, and possessing a degree of flex- 
ibility when in thin laminae. 

5. Buhrstone. A cellular flinty rock, having the 
nature in part of coarse chalcedony. 

6. Pseudomorphous quarts. Quartz appears also 



'3± BILEX, (Hi SILICA. 

under the forms of many of the mineral species, 
which it lias taken through either the alteration or 
replacement of crystals of those species. The most 
common quartz, pseudomorphs, are those of calcite, 
baryta, fluorite and siderite. Tabular quartz, Hay- 
torite, Beekite, Babel quartz, silicified shells and 
silicified wood are found pseudomorphized by other 
minerals, either of carbonate lime, Datholite, fluor-* 
spar, shells and wood. The texture of the wood, 
for instance, is well retained, it having been formed 
by the deposit of silica, from its solution in the 
cells of the wood, and finally taking the place of the 
walls of the cells as the wood itself disappeared. 

Dissolved quartz, or liquid silica, occurs often in 
heated natural waters, as those of the Geysers of Tee- 
land, New Zealand and California, mostly as a solu- 
ble alkaline silicate. 

Quartz is one of the essential constituents of gran- 
ite, syenite, gneiss, mica, shist and many related 
rocks. As the principal constituent of quartz rock 
and many sandstones, as an unessential ingredient 
in some trachyte porphyry, &c. ; as the veinstone in 
various rocks, and for a large part of mineral veins ; 
as a foreign mineral in the cavities of tray), basalt 
and related rocks, some limestones, etc., making 
geodes of crystals or of chalcedony, agate, carnelian, 
&C, as imbedded nodules or masses in various lime- 
stones containing the flint of the chalk formation, 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 35 

the hornstone of other limestones ; these nodules 
becoming sometimes layers or masses of jasper oc- 
casionally in limestone. It is the principal material 
of the pebbles of gravel beds and of the sands of the 
seashore and river s&ndbeds. 

Independent of the quartz proper, as has been 
just described, nature produces a vast many mine- 
rals composed either solely of silica, with slight va- 
riations in their degree of hardness or specific gravity, 
such as the following : 

The opal, which is sub-divided, in 

1. The precious opal, exhibiting a play of delicate 
colors. 

2. The fine opal^ of hyacinth red to honey-yellow 
colors. 

3. The girasol, of bluish white color, with reddish 
reflections in a bright light. 

4. The common opal, in part translucent, and milk- 
white to greenish, yellowish, bluish. Resin opal, wax 
or honey color, with resinous lustre. Olive green 
opal ; brick-red opal ; hydrophane, a translucent 
opal, whitish or light colored, adheres to the tongue, 
and becomes more translucent or transparent in 
water, wdierefore its name. An orange, yellow opal, 
called Forcherte, it is colored by orpiment. 

5. Gachelong. Opaque and bluish white, porcelain 
white; often adheres to the tongue. 



36 8ILEX, OR SILK A. 

6. Opal agate. Agatelike in structure, but con- 
sisting of opal of different shades of color. 

7. MenUite. In concretionary forms, tuberose, 
reniform; opaque, dull gray and grayish brown. 

8. Jdspopal. An opal, containing some yellow 
oxide of iron, and having the color of yellow jasper. 

9. Wood opal. Wood petrified by opal. 

10. Hyalite. Clear as glass and colorless, consti- 
tuting globular concretions and crusts. 

11. Florite, or siliceous sinter; also called pearl 
sinter, from Santa Fiora, in Italy, and other vol- 
canic rocks, formed from the decomposition of the 
siliceous minerals of volcanic rocks, or from the sili- 
ceous waters of hot springs. 

12. Float stone ; also called swimming quartz ; is 
light, concretionary or tuberose masses, white or 
grayish, sometimes cavernous. 

13. Tripolite. Infusorial eartli ; formed from the 
siliceous shells of diatomous and other microscopic 
species, occurring in deposits often miles in area 
either uncompacted or moderately hard. 

a. Infusorial ea/rth, or earthy tripolite, is a very 
fine grained earth, looking often like an 
earthy chalk or clay ; but harsh to the feel, 
and scratching glass, when rubbed on it. 

1. Randaniti : a kaolin-like variety from France. 

c. Tripoli slate. A slaty or thin laminated va- 
riety : fragile, often mixed with clay, mag- 
nesia and oxide of iron. 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 37 

d. Alumocalcite. A milk-white material, verv 
light, having a hardness of only 1 to 1J, and 
a sp. gr. of 2.174, and probably a variety of 
tripolite. 

This mineral is, probably, the most economical and 
useful material for the manufacture of the soluble 
glass. 

The opal family is likewise a quartz, but a little 
softer and contains some water, is soluble in a heated 
solution of potash, while quartz does not. 

In England and France the flints from the chalk 
are mostly employed in the manufacture of soluble 
glass ; but in the United States clear sand, from the 
river-bed of New Jersey and Mississippi Rivers, are 
solely used in its manufacture. Sand generally con- 
sists of particles of quartz, but there is also a granitic 
sand, containing particles of felspar as well as 
quartz, where it has not been long enough exposed 
to meteoric agents to decompose the felspar. Sand 
usually consists of grains more or less rounded, but 
sometimes angular, and then preferable for mor- 
tar. There are several varieties of the sandstone, 
such as micaceous, argillaceous, marly and flexible. 
Common sand is mainly comminuted quartz. Gravel 
is a mixture of sand with pebbles. Volcanic sand is 
sand of volcanic origin : either the cinders or ashes or 
comminuted lava. Alluvial sand is the earth deposited 
by running streams, especially during times of flood ; 



38 

it constitutes the flats on either side of the stream, 
and is usually in thin layers, varying in fineness or 
coarseness, being the result of successive depositions. 
In order to use the sand for the manufacture of solu- 
ble glass, which shall equal that manufactured from 
flint, or infusorial or siliceous earth, it is best to di- 
gest the sand with chlorohydric acid, which is capable 
of dissolving all the foreign substances, and then by 
frequent washings and drying in the sun, produces a 
pretty pure silica. Iron, clay, lime, which are, more 
or less, found in the mud, may easily be detected by 
the various chemical tests, such as by ammonia, the 
iron ; by oxalate of ammonia, the lime ; and clay, by 
carbonate of soda. 

If the pure crystallized quartz, flint or hornstone 
should be used for the manufacture, the same must 
be reduced into coarse or granular condition, w r hich 
is effected by calcining the mineral, and when red 
hot, cold water is thrown over it, whereby it becomes 
disintegrated and falls to pieces, and it is then ground 
in mills used by the glass manufacturers. 

Before closing the chapter of silica, it must be 
stated that nature has given us a vast variety of sili- 
cates : that the alkaline silicates of soda, potash and 
lime, which are called the soluble silicates, are spread 
over the globe in such quantities, like oxygen com- 
pounds with the addition of many other bases in na- 
ture, that there are very few r mineral substances known 



SILEX, OR SILICA. 39 

in which silica, representing the acid, is not combined 
with the various elements and forming silicates which 
are again divided in anhydrous and hydrous silicates, 
all of them having ternary oxygen compounds. The 
anhydrous silicates are again sub-divided, as 1. Bi- 
silicates; 2. Unisilicates ; and 3. Sub-silicates; while 
the hydrous silicates are again divided in various 
sections. The whole crust of the globe consists in 
silicates. The felspar mica is a pure silicate. We 
have a soda felspar, and a potash felspar, and a 
lime felspar, while the mica is a compound of silica 
combined with some other bases, such as alumina, 
magnesia, &c. The zeolites form a large class of 
silicates, which resemble the felspar, but contain 
water, and are less hard and more fusible, such as 
the analcime, chabasite, stilbite, heulandite, &c. 

In the manufacture of soluble glass, the alkali 
is in importance next to the quartz or silica such as the 
soda and potash, both of which are employed as the 
carbonates which ought to be pure. 

The carbonate of potash, which is the pearlash, 
must be free from foreign saline substances. The 
glass manufacturers prepare that material by wash- 
ing it freely with water and evaporating the solution 
to the formation of a precipitate of salt, and then 
the water is run off. 

The Soda employed in the manufacture is the 
soda ash of commerce, and is never pure enough, 



40 SILEX, OR SILICA. 

containing water and other salts, which ought to be 
removed from it by dissolving, crystallizing, and then 
calcination of the crystals. 

Sulphate of soda, or Glauber salt, has been used 
by some manufacturers in place of soda ash, which 
ought not be employed, as the same is partly con- 
verted into sulphide or sulphuret and oxsulphite of 
sodium, which is detrimental. 

Fluorspar, a fluoride of calcium, may be added to 
the mixture of sand and alkali, as it produces a more 
fusible silicate, which will harden soon after applica- 
tion by the affinity for this alkali. In the produc- 
tion of hard cements, the fluohydric acid is of great 
service, for it assists in the hardening of the mortar, 
and forming a good, permanent cement. 

White arsenic in powder [arsenious acid], and 
nitrate of soda, are used in this composition: they 
produce a white soluble glass ; w T hile, without any 
admixture, the product is green. From three to eight 
per cent, of either are used. 



THE MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 



I. The POTASH SOLUBLE GLASS. 

It is obtained by mixing 15 parts powdered quartz 
or pure sand with 10 parts purified pearl ashes, and 
1 part charcoal in a Hessian crucible, and exposing 
the mixture so long to a heat until the mass after six 
hours has become vitrified. Charcoal is employed 
for assisting, by its decomposition, the production of 
carbonic acid, as also some sulphuric acid which may 
have been produced. It is at present, however, 
omitted, and if manufactured on a large scale the 
vitrification is done in a reverboratory furnace capa- 
ble of holding from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds. The ashes 
and sand must be well mixed together for some time 
and the furnace must be very hot before throwing 
the mixture in it, and must be constantly kept up 
until the entire mass is in a liquid condition. The 
tough mass is then raked out and thrown upon a 
stone hearth and left to cool. The glass mass so ob- 
tained appears to be hard and blistery, of blackish 
gray color, and if the ashes were not quite pure it 
will also be adulterated with foreign salts. By pul- 
verizing and exposing it to the air it will absorb 



42 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

the acidity, and by degrees the foreign salts will, 
after frequent agitation and stirring, be completely 
separated, particularly after pouring over the mass 
some cold water, which dissolves them, but not the 
soluble glass. The purified mass is now put into an 
iron cauldron, containing five times the quantity of 
hot water, in small portions, and with constant agita- 
tion, and replacing occasionally hot water for that 
which evaporated during the boiling, and after five or 
six hours the entire mass is dissolved ; the liquid is re- 
moved and left to settle over night, in order to be 
able to separate any undecomposed silex. The next 
day it is evaporated still more until it has assumed 
the consistency of a syrup, and standing 28°JB, and 
is composed of 28 per cent, potash, 62 per cent, 
silica and 12 per cent, water. It has an alkaline 
taste, and is soluble in all proportions of water, and 
is precipitated by alcohol, and if any salts do effer- 
vesce they may be wiped off. The color is not quite 
white, but assumes a greenish or yellowish white 
color. 

II. The MANUFACTURE OF SODA SOLUBLE GLASS .* To 

45 parts silica or white river sand are added 23 parts 
carbonate of soda fully calcined, and 3 parts char- 
coal, and is then treated in the same manner as the 
oilier glass. The proportions of the mixture 1 are 
altered by the different manufacturers, some propose 
to 100 parts silex, 60 parts anhydrous glauber salt 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 43 

and 15 to 20 parts charcoal. By the addition of 
some copper scales to the mixture, the sulphur will 
be separated. Another method is proposed by dis- 
solving the fine silex in caustic soda lye. Kuhlman 
employs the powdered flint, which is dissolved in an 
iron cauldron under a pressure of 7 to 8 atmospheres. 
According to Liebig the infusorial earth is recom- 
mended in place of sand on account of being readily 
soluble in caustic lye, and he proposes to use 120 
parts infusorial earth to 75 parts caustic soda, from 
which 240 parts silica jelly may be obtained. His 
mode is to calcine the earth so as to become of white 
colors, and passing it through sieves. The lye he 
prepares from 75 ounces calcined soda, dissolved 
in five times the quantity of boiling water, and then 
treated by 56 ounces of dry slacked lime ; this lye is 
concentrated by boiling down to 48 deg. B ; in this 
boiling lye 120 ounces of the prepared infusorial 
earth are added by degrees, and very readily dis- 
solved, leaving scarcely any sediment. It has then to 
undergo several operations for making it suitable for 
use, such as treating again with lime water, boiling 
it and separate any precipate forming thereby, which 
by continued boiling forms into balls, and which can 
then be separated from the liquid. This clear liquid 
is then evaporated to consistency of syrup, forms a 
jelly slightly colored, feels dry and not sticky, and is 
easily soluble in boiling water. 



44 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

The difference between potash and soda soluble 
glass is not material ; the first may be preferred in 
white washing with plaster of Paris, while the soda 
glass is more fluidly divisible. 

It may be observed that before applying either 
soluble glass, it ought to be exposed to the air for ten 
to twelve days, in order to allow an effloresence of 
any excess of alkali, which might act injuriously. 
There are, however, many methods proposed to ob- 
viate this difficulty, and which will be mentioned 
hereafter. 

III. — The DOUBLE SOLUBLE GLASS. 

This is a compound of potash and soda, is prepared 
from 100 parts quartz, 28 parts purified pearl ashes, 
22 parts anhydrous bicarbonate of soda, 6 parts of 
charcoal, which are spread in such manner as already 
described. If the mass is fully evaporated to dry- 
ness forms a vitreous solid glass which cannot be 
scratched by steel, has a conchoidal fracture, of sea- 
green color, translucent and even transparent, has a 
specific gravity of 1.43. 

IV. The solubli; glass, after Kaulbach, for the 
use of sterro-chromic painting. 

It is obtained by fusing 3 parts of pure carbonate 
M><la and 2 part- powdered quartz, from which a con- 
centrated solution is prepared, and 1 part of which 
is then added to 4 parts of a concentrated and fully 
saturated solution of potash glass solution, by which 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 45 

it assumes a more condensed amount of silica with 
the alkalies : and which solution has been found to 
work well for paint. Si em en's patent for the manu- 
facture of soluble glass, consists in the production of 
a liquid quartz by digesting the -and or quartz in a 
steam boiler tightly closed and at a temperature cor- 
responding to 4-5 atmospheres, with the common 
caustic alkalies, which are hereby capacitated to dis- 
solve from three to four times the weight of silica to 
a thin liquid. The apparatus, which was patented in 
1845, is well known in this country ; as some per- 
s, many years later, obtained a patent for the 
same apparatus in the United States, which on 
inspection dues not differ from that of Siei en- 
Brother-. 

Description of Siemen's Apparatus for dissolving 
silica in soda lye. under a pressure of five atmos- 
phere xty pounds to the square inch. 



2* 



46 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

The whole apparatus consists of the boiler A, and 
the dissolving kettle B. 

Fig. 1 represents the front side, and 2 the horizon- 
tal. A and B are connected by the pipe a. The 
kettle B is constructed of two strong walls, with a 
space h of the width of 1-2 inches. 

The steam passes through the pipe a into the space 
b. In order to reach the inner kettle, which is per- 
fectly tight, the wall c has to be unscrewed. Under 
the middle of this wall the box cl is now attached, 
which encloses the iron pipe e, passing through the 
length of the kettle. Then the shovels, or agitators, 
f f, are now applied with a wheel g at the end for 
effecting the revolutionary movement. The steam- 
cocks h as seen at the front wall e, for indicating the 
stage of the water in the interior kettle ; the cock i 
serves for pumping and discharging the solution, and 
the cock Jc for letting off the water, which was con- 
densed in the steam chamber C. 

The outer kettle is surrounded with ashes, or any 
other non-conducting substance. 

The boiler is supplied with ventils and manometers, 
and the kettle B is tested to stand a pressure of 80- 
100 pounds per square inch. 

The kettle is now tilled with the necessary quantity 
of silex, after the front wall has been screwed on by 
means of the cock j, and is filled up with the caustic 
lye, which is composed of 100 lbs. carbonate of soda 



APPARATUS FOR DISSOLVING QUARTZ 

UNDER PRESSURE OF FIVE ATMOSPHERES. 




~^^ 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 47 

to 20 gallons water, and 1 lb. of silex for each quart 
of water ; when filled, and the steam having assumed 
the tension of 60 lbs. to the square inch, as indicated 
by the safety ventil, the cock in is opened, when the 
steam passes to the other kettle, and condenses on 
the cold wall of the inner kettle ; here the tempera- 
ture is raised,* and assumes soon a pressure of sixty 
pounds, which point is indicated by the escape of 
steam from the safety valve. Fire is now kept up for 
six to eight hoars under a constant escape of vapor. 

During all this time the shovels or agitators are 
kept in motion by the workmen, and then the silex 
contained in the kettle will have dissolved from 80- 
90 per cent., and is drawn off, and may be re-filled 
for a new operation. 

The apparatus may undergo some modification as 
the agitators get a different form, etc., etc. 

The silica to be employed is, as already stated to 
be, the common sand, which is at first calcined and 
thrown in water ; when dry, it is ground as fine as 
flour. 

The liquid silica when discharged from the kettle 
may be evaporated to dryness, when it assumes a 
compact mass, a v^reous and conchoidal fracture 
and a hardness, so as to give sparks on steel, without 
the brittleness of flint. 

The solution as it is obtained from the kettle may 
be converted into a white fine stone, by adding fine 



48 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

sand, until it assumes a plastic mass, say 3-4 parts 
with the addition of a little chalk or lime and white 
clay ; by exposing this mass when formed into press- 
ed stones or objects to the atmosphere for some time, 
the stone is now in the best condition. 

Instead of fine sand, fine powdered dry silicate 
may be substituted, and a better stone thereby ob- 
tained. 

When the mass is dried, it must undergo the pres- 
sure of a hydraulic press. 

The addition of chloride of calcium and chloride 
of iron, either in liquid state or in dry powders, is 
highly recommended for promoting the hardening 
process. 

Siemens' remarks of the application of the silex 
liquid, that the sand to be employed must be first 
calcined and then thrown into cold water, and after- 
wards ground into fine powder, which, when mixed 
with his liquid, becomes compact, insoluble and 
white, possessing a vitreous and conchoidal fracture, 
and a hardness so as to give sparks by steel. 

The same gentleman also recommends for the pro- 
duction of a white stone, to work up the fine silex 
with so much liquid soluble glass so as to form a 
plaster mass, say from 3-4 parts of the sand may be 
required, similar to potter's clay, and adding, at the 
same time, a small quantity of chalk and fine clay, 
whereby the mass becomes more uniform and com- 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 49 

pact. Prepared in this manner, objects moulded or 
pressed from the mass must be exposed to the air for 
some time. 

For monuments, millstones and other building 
material, he uses 1 part liquid silica to 2 parts fine 
sand and 12 parts coarse sand, which mass formed 
into the desired sizes or objects, after being dried 
long enough in the air, are left in a heated room of 
75 Q for several days, and even to the boiling point of 
water ; they become so hard, after a lapse of four to 
six days, that they never crack or fall to pieces. It 
is also recommended to expose the mass to the pres- 
sure of a hydraulic press before exposing to the air. 
For obtaining a cement — roofing and wall body — it 
is advisable to add the chloride of calcium to the 
mass, and thereby the excess of alkali is absorbed. 

The mass so formed may be steeped in a solution 
of chloride of calcium, or chloride of iron, before 
exposing to the atmosphere. In all these cases the 
silica ought to be employed very concentrated, even 
in jelly form. 

The uses of the soluble glass are here condensed in 
a short sketch intended as a circular to those desirous 
of obtaining some information : 



50 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

" THE USES OF ^SOLUBLE GLASS (LIQUID SILEx), SILICATE OF 

soda, silicate of potash, silicate of soda and potash 
(combined.) 

" Liquid silica is now employed in the arts for 
many useful purposes, and particularly for preserv- 
ing stone buildings from decomposition ; for prepar- 
ing an artificial stone, and thereby reducing the price 
of building, and making a composition more orna- 
mental. Its introduction for architecture is but of 
recent date, and the true and proper method of appli- 
cation not yet on an infallible base; but the subject 
is of so vast importance, that experiments are con- 
tinually going on for making a perfect stone from 
its original ingredients. 

u The cause of gradual decomposition of building 
stone is attributed to the expansion and contraction 
of water absorbed, as well as to the chemical action 
of carbonic acid of the atmosphere, which abstracts 
portions of the gases from the silicates, and liberat- 
ing thereby silica. Many palaces in Europe, churches 
and other public buildings, have been refinished by 
the silicate, such as the Louvre and Notre Dame Ca- 
thedral in Paris, the Houses of Parliament in London, 
and in other cities. Still, its general application has 
met witli many, failures. It was found that rain 



* In the year 1882 Dr. P. prepared a quantity of soluble glass for the U. S. Gov- 
ernment to preserve the cannon, guns and bomb shells from rust or oxidation at 
the Navy Yard in Brooklyn, to the fullest satisfaction of the late Commodore 
Perry. 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 51 

counteracted the effect before the alkali has had time 
to take up a sufficient quantity of carbonic acid from 
the atmosphere and to liberate the insoluble silicate^ 
the coating will produce cracks, and a gradual disin- 
tegration of the surface or compound is caused there- 
by. Numerous remedies were suggested to counter- 
act this evil — the chloride of calcium, oxy chloride of 
magnesium, the bittern of the salines, and hydroflu- 
oric acid. At present a concrete stone of consider- 
able hardness and durability is now prepared by 
means of greater pressure and proper manipulation, 
the main object being to neutralize and extract the 
alkali, and to form a solid chemical compound by a 
second application of a weak wash of chloride of 
calcium or magnesium. The object is now fully 
achieved. 

" Another important application of the soluble 
glass is to render wood non-inflammable, and stop 
any communication of the fire, and at the same time 
proof against water and damp. The wood, timber, 
or other substances, after being boiled for several 
hours in the soluble glass, then exposed in tanks, 
containing solution of lime water and solutions of 
chk'ide calcium, are hereby petrified. 

" Railroad sleepers, cross-ties, house, ship and 
bridge timber will also be silicified by this process. 
Telegraph poles become more durable and better 
non-conductors of electricity. The lining of barrels 



52 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

for oil and other liquids, the coating of tanks, tubs 
and cisterns, flour barrels, to prevent the flour get- 
ting musty, is very easily and effectually done by the 
proper and judicious use of the liquid silica. 

" Soluble glass may be mixed with paper pulp, or 
cheap vegetable and animal fibre, and serve for the 
manufacture of a variety of useful articles, such as 
boxes, trunks, soles for boots and shoes, patterns, 
moulds and handles. Invaluable and of the highest 
usefulness, the soluble glass can be employed in fire- 
proof paints, cements, varnishes, etc., for which pur- 
poses the daily demands are sufficient proofs. 

" The dentists make use of the silica for mending 
their plaster moulds, or in case of an accident to the 
cast of a set of teeth. Valuable documents are made 
fireproof, and parchment board, slates and marbles 
are cemented together, and cracks and crevices filled 
up. 

" The woolgrowers apply the silicate of soda and 
potash to the greatest advantage for cleansing or de- 
greasing the fleece wool and make it soft. 

" A hard and ornamental cement, which can be 
moulded like plaster of Paris, is obtained from the 
mixture of silicate of soda and ground dolomite or 
magnesian limestone, which may be used both natu- 
ral and calcined in equal quantities, and before the 
mass is dry the bittern (chloride of magnesium) from 
the salines is added, w T hich will harden it at once. A 



MANUFACTURE .OF SOLUBLE GLASS. Do 

good cellar and roofing cement is made by adding to 
this mass three parts of white sand. 

" The silicate is also used for penetrating firebrick 
and clay, in order to make them more fireproof, and 
also used for cementing the walls. For producing a 
durable putty in iron castings, such as furnaces, 
heaters, stoves, etc., and also for mending air-holes. 
Boiler makers can produce a very durable lining by 
making a cement of silicate with asbestos and man- 
ganese finely ground, it renders boilers and other 
metallic vessels perfectly fireproof, and the best fire 
and anti-rust paint for iron, steel and brass. There 
are a great many more useful applications in which 
the silicate may be used." 

The alkaline silicates, as have been here described, 
have a bright future for their application : the genius 
of the nineteenth century cannot fail to accomplish 
the perfecting the work begun fifty years ago, and to 
this moment still liable to faults. Ere long we will 
be enabled to produce an artificial stone which shall 
excel nature ; we will be able to produce a perfect 
silicification of wood and other organic matter ; we 
will challenge the atmosphere and other chemical 
productions to do their best for forming a decomposi- 
tion of those materials obtained by the new acquired 
skill to resist their action. The labors of Fuch, Lie- 
big, Kuhlman, Yicat, Temy, Guerin and Eansome 



54 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS, 

have fairly begun their work, and in ten years more 
the ship builder, carpenter, mason, painter, the rail 
road contractor and the mechanic in general will 
consider this valuable substance indispensable. 

Among the most simple processes in the silicifica- 
tion or manufacture of artificial stone is that of Ran- 
some, which consists in the following manner: 

The sand after being dried is worked up in a mill 
with the soluble silicate, prepared from caustic soda 
and flints, the latter being dissolved by the former, 
and evaporated down to a specific gravity of 1,700. 
The plastic mass thus produced is obedient to the will 
of the moulder, and can be manipulated into any 
form, from a cube to elaborate screens, from a grind- 
stone to an exceedingly chisseled fountain. The 
mass so prepared is then saturated with chloride of 
calcium, applied simply by immersion or assisted by 
the action of an air-pump ; in either process the so- 
lution being gradually heated to a temperature of 
212° F. 

The indurating action of the chloride of calcium 
i.- promoted in closed chambers connected with a 
steam boiler. When this has been carried on for a 
sufficient length of time, by opening a cock the solu- 
tion is forced by steam pressure into a separate cham- 
ber, leaving the stone to cool gradually in partial 
vapor, by which all danger of cracking is avoided ; 
a casualty which is liable to happen when large 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 55 

masses are exposed to rapid extremes of temperature 
in the open air. In order to remove or extract the 
soluble salts of calcium and sodium from the body 
of the stone, which is effected in the same closed 
chambers by the admission of steam, or steam and 
water alternately, which as it condenses and becomes- 
saturated with the salts referred to, is returned into 
the boiler, where the steam is generated, and the 
chloride of calcium is again made available for future 
operations, thus obviating the serious loss incurred 
by washing the stone in the way hitherto adopted. 

Mr. R. was led to his last experiments from the 
many faults which he discovered in manipulating ; 
he supposed, at first, that by mixing sand and frag- 
ments of stone with the fluid silicate into a kind of 
paste and exposing them to the air, they wouM be 
permanently solid. But he found that stones they 
made very soon became disintegrated in any moist 
atmosphere, and particularly in England, and could 
never indurate. To remove this serious objection, he 
subjected them to the action of heat in a kiln, and he 
found then that at a bright red the cementing mate- 
rial or silicate parted with some of its free alkali, 
the portion thus renewed combining with some of 
the sand to produce an insoluble glass, unaffected 
by exposure to any of the acids present in the air 
and not cracking by exposure to frost when damp. 
This artificial stone could be made so porous as to be 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

well adapted for filtering slabs, or it could be so 
compacted by mechanical pressure before burning as 
to yield a material not inferior in its power to resist 
atmospheric action and even absorbtion. Paving 
slabs, garden vases, balusters, tombstones and various 
architectural features, often constructed of terra cotta, 
were produced of superior quality and greater dura- 
bility. The stone thus made, however, after some 
exposure, was found to become unsightly, owing to 
the efflorescence of the saline matter. 

This patent siliceous stone was also found too ex- 
pensive to come into general use on a large scale, 
but the inventor has, at last, succeeded in reaching 
to a satisfactory result. 

The author has, many years ago in the course of 
his experiments, succeeded in preparing an artificial 
stone in the following manner : — Fluorspar, finely 
ground, is mixed with the powdered soluble glass, 
2 parts of the first to 1 part of the latter, the mixture 
made into a thin paste by the concentrated liquid 
soluble glass, and then as much finely powdered shell 
limestone, or magnesian limestone added until the 
mass becomes thick enough to form into moulds or 
blocks, whichever may be desired, after an expo- 
sure of three to four days to the atmosphere are 
treated by a weak solution of chloride of calcium (2 
pounds dry chloride to the gallon of hot water), 
thig liquid will soon be absorbed by the stone; it 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. OT 

is then exposed again to the atmosphere for a week ; 
a dilute hydro-fluoric acid is then applied with a 
sponge, and again exposed to the atmosphere ; after 
a lapse of a week the stone is as hard as a natural 
stone, and not liable to crack or to disintegrate. 

This composition is much easier prepared, and in- 
stead of common lime, chalk may be substituted, and 
the result is still more favorable. Instead of the en- 
tire quantity of lime, coarse sand may be partially 
added, and after the stones are moulded, are exposed 
to hydraulic pressure, and then exposed to the air, 
previous to which the chloride of clalcium has to be 
thrown over it. The price of hydro-fluoric acid, as 
is used for this purpose, costs about 25 cents per 
pound, and this suffices for ten square feet. It must 
be, however, observed, that the soluble glass used in 
this process was the potash silica and not the soda 
silicate, as he found by his experiments to be indis- 
pensable, the soda silicate does not produce that du- 
rability and hardness that the potash silicate. 

Furthermore it may be remarked, that exposing 
the stone so prepared may be subjected to a high 
temperature or not ; it may be left to the operator to 
decide whether it will improve the stone by this ma- 
nipulation. 

For the sandstone imitation, when 1 part liquid 
soluble glass is to be mixed with 2 parts powdered 
soluble glass, and 15 parts of sand is added, it is ne- 



58 MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 

cessary to expose the mass to great pressure, but 
requires not the addition of chloride of calcium, 
while exposure to great heat is indispensable. 

An artificial stone may be also obtained by the use 
of the alkaline silicates with common chalk, which 
by mixing even cold with the liquid silica, is at once 
converted into silicate of lime aid carbonate of soda 
or potash : this composition, when exposed to the air, 
becomes in a few days hard enough so as to resemble 
a hydraulic lime, to adhere, when wetted again, like 
a cement, which may be used for restoring cracks 
and crevices in marble works and monuments. 

The silification of chalk has led to numerous ex- 
periments, and resulted in the production of artificial 
stone, in the formation of hydraulic lime, hydraulic 
mortar and the various cements. The first successful 
result of the treatment of chalk with the silicate 
solution has shown that the hardening of the chalk 
extended to the depth of four inches, which not alone 
was produced from the decomposition of the silicate 
by the carbonate of lime (chalk), but also by the car- 
bonic acid of the atmosphere. If two balls of chalk 
of equal size and quality are silicified at the same 
time, and one of them is exposed to the atmosphere, 
the other kept under a bell glass, where the carbonic 
acid of the atmosphere is withdrawn, the first will 
acquire more hardness than the other, which proves 
that the silification has assumed a hvdrate of silico — 



MANUFACTURE OF SOLUBLE GLASS. 59 

carbonate of lime — which looses by degrees its water 
of crystallization and a contracting precipitate of si- 
lica, which contributes mainly to the hardening of 
the stone. 

A hydraulic lime may be obtained by the mix- 
ture of a fat or rich limestone combined with solu- 
ble glass in a dry state, say 10 parts silicate to 
100 parts of air lime, both fine powder, which proves 
plainly the theory of the part which the silicates 
play in the production of the native limestone, the 
artificial hydraulic lime, mortar, cements, and the 
application of all silicates for the purposes of build- 
ing, production of artificial stones, and the conver- 
sion of organic into inorganic materials, as we shall 
show hereafter. 



HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, CEMENTS AND 
• PLASTERS. 

It is necessary to explain the main material used 
in building, which is lime, before we can proceed 
farther with our subject of silicification, or imitation 
of the same substances by means of art, latterly ac- 
quired, and which bids fair to excel nature. From 
one of Anted's lectures on practical geology, the 
following article on cements and plasters gives a 
good idea of their importance : 

" The earliest architectural constructions: to fasten 
together the bricks or stones of which buildings are 
made were of various kinds ; the most common and 
familiar is called mortar. It is obtained by first cal- 
cining common limestone in a kiln, and converting 
it into quick lime, by depriving it of its carbonic acid. 
After calcining, the resulting quicklime is a whitish 
or grayish powTlery and cracked substance, which, on 
the application of water, absorbs a certain quantity 
with the evolution of much heat, and falls into a fine 
powder. This powder, further moistened, made into 
a thin paste with water and mixed with two to three 
times its own weight of sharp sand, is called mortar. 



HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, CEMENTS, ETC. C)l 

Slaked lime, or hydrate of lime, as moistened quick- 
lime is called, absorbs carbonic acid from the air, and 
in time mortar is reconverted into limestone ; but 
the operation goes on under peculiar conditions, and 
the result is also peculiar ; for a film of silicate of 
lime is formed round each grain 'of sand, and thus 
the whole mass and the stones, between which it is 
placed, become in time more compact than the par- 
ticles of limestone. 

"As, however, there are different kinds of limestone, 
more or less impure, the result will be limes of very 
different qualities and properties. These require spe- 
cial treatment to obtain from them the best results. 
The purest carbonate of lime, such as marble, or 
chalk, make .what is called a rich lime, setting- firjclj 
only in dry air, while the very impure carb^ _.j, in 
which clay is largely mixed with the limestone, re- 
sult in the production of hydraulic limes, which set 
more or less rapidly in moist air or even under water. 
Some of the impure limestones are used in the manu- 
facture of cements by the admixture of definite pro- 
portions of foreign ingredients. Some times by the 
admixture of certain substances [as puzzuolana] with 
the rich limes instead of sand hydraulic limes are 
produced. There are few subjects connected with 
the application of geology that are more important 
than the determination of the material that should be 
used and the treatment adopted in various countries 



62 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

in the manufacture of cements, mortars and stuccoes. 

" Commencing with nearly pure carbonates of 
lime, it is not difficult to trace the changes that take 
place in their conversion into cements ; a layer of 
such mortar, not too thick, placed between bricks or 
stone, which are themselves absorbent, and kept in 
dry air, dries gradually and holds together such sub- 
stances with extraordinary tenacity. But this is a 
work of years, and sometimes even centuries must 
run out before the extreme of hardness is attained ! 
It is not unusual to find imperfectly hardened mor- 
tars in very old constructions. The mortar that fast- 
ened together the bricks in the old Roman walls is 
now r almost everywhere so far hardened that a frac- 
ture takes place in the brick rather than the cement. 

" Limestone is widely distributed, and almost every 
variety, however impure, can be burnt for lime. In 
the manufacture of good common mortar to set in 
the air, pure limestones and those of fair ordinary 
quality are available ; but in using them attention 
must be given to their composition and even texture ; 
thus the hardest limestones and marbles make the 
fattest lime, other things being the same, but each 
variety yields a lime of different quality, distinct in 
color, in weight, in the greediness with which it ab- 
sorbs w r ater, and in its ultimate hardness. The 
method of calcination also varies, but the general 
result is that, after burning the limestone, the result- 



63 

ing quicklime is lighter than the original stone, and 
differs from it essentially. To determine the nature 
of lime, and its peculiar properties, perfectly fresh 
samples should be placed in a small open basket and 
immersed in pure water for five or six seconds ; re- 
moved from the water, the loose unabsorbed water 
must be allowed to run off, and the contents of the 
basket emptied into a stone or iron mortar. Accord- 
ing to the nature of the limestone the lime will now 
exhibit some one of the following phenomena : 

"1. It will hiss, crackle, swell, give off' much va- 
por, and fall into powder instantly. 

'' 2. It will remain inert for seme short time, not 
exceeding five or six minutes, after which the results 
stated in (1) will be energetically declared. 

" 3. It v emain inert for more than five mi- 
nutes, sometimes extending to a quarter of an hour ; 
it then gives off vapors to a moderate extent, and 
cracks without noise and without much evolution 
of heat. 

" 4. The lime will crack without noise and with 
little steam, but not until an "hour has elapsed. 

"5. The lime will become scarcely warm to the 
touch, will not fall to powder, and will crack to a 
very small extent. 

" In each case, before the effervescence (if any 
takes place) has quite disappeared, the slaking 
should be completed by the addition of water, not 



64: HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

thrown upon the lime, but by the side of it, and the 
result should be frequently stirred, more water be 
added, till the whole is brought to the consistence of 
a thick paste. When the mass has cooled, which will 
not take place for two or three hours, the whole should 
be beaten up again, until a firm but tenaceous paste 
is produced, resembling clay prepared for pottery 
manufacture. Vessels being then filled with this 
paste, or obtained from each variety of limestone, 
the day and hour of immersion should be marked 
upon them, after which they are left to solidify. 

"We thus obtain a test of the nature of the mate 
rials used, which may belong to one of five classes — 

(1.) Rich Limes. 

(2.) Poor limes. 

(3.) Moderately hydraulic limes. 

(4.) Hydraulic limes. 

(5.) Eminently hydraulic limes. 
" The word hydraulic, as applied to lime, means 
only, that it possesses the property of setting, or be- 
coming solid, in moist air or underwater. 

" Rich limes are obtained from the purest and 
hardest limestones. When slaked, they increase to 
double their volume ; if employed alone they remain 
unaltered even for years, and they are soluble in pure 
water. Limestones that contain from 1-6 per cent, 
of foreign substances, such as silica, alumina, magne- 
sia, ire, yield rich limes ; but such as contain from 



CEMENTS, ETC. 65 

15 to 30 per cent., are poor limes ; they increase in 
bulk but little on slaking, do not set under water, 
and are soluble, like the rich limes, except that they 
leave a residuum. The fossiliferous limestones make 
bad mortar, as the slaking is irregular: limestones 
containing much silica, swell in setting, and may 
dislocate the masonry executed with them. Where 
alumina is in excess, the lime is apt to shrink and 
crack. Where carbonate of magnesia is combined 
with carbonate of lime, as in the magnesian lime- 
stones, the original bulk is retained. For ordinary 
purposes, moderately pure limestones with a mixture 
of foreign substances is a moderately pure limestone. 
Hydraulic limes are of great value in construction, 
and are extremely interesting ; and are either ob- 
tained naturally from the burning of certain varie- 
ties of calcareous rock, or are manufactured artifici- 
ally by mixing limestones with the requisite foreign 
ingredients, or by combining quick lime with foreign 
materials, such are the Roman cement, Portland ce- 
ment, Parker's and Rosendale cements. The Port- 
land cement is largely manufactured at the mouth of 
the Thames from a mixed river mud, while Roman 
cement is formed from the nodules found in the cliffs 
near Harwich, all owing their quality to argillaceous 
admixture and limestone containing from 15 to 25 
per cent, of a silicate of alumnia, will burn into a 
good hydraulic lime. It is also quite certain that the 



66 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

oxide of iron and carbonate of magnesia exercise a 
great influence in rendering limes more hydraulic. 
All materials intended for the manufacture of ce- 
ments require to be burnt carefully and ground down 
to a fine powder, and the best cement is the lightest. 
When these cements are intended for the production 
of an artificial stone, from ten to twelve times the 
weight of broken stones and pebbles are added, and 
form also an excellent concrete. A stone made from 
these cements, just described, will bear a strain vary- 
ing from 20-60 pounds to the square inch. 

The plaster cement is obtained from the gypsum, 
or sulphate of lime, abundant in England, France 
and the United States, is treated like common lime- 
stone for a cement. The calcining of gypsum does 
not involve its decomposition, but the water of solid- 
ification being driven off by the calcination, leaves 
only a soft white powder called plaster of Paris ; 
when this is again united with water, the latter is 
absorbed, and the mass becomes, first, plastic, and 
then solid, but it cannot be brought back to its origi- 
nal condition as a crvstalline mineral, but it is con- 
verted into various substances used as cement, such 
2&Keene > s cement, if alum is added to the fine pow- 
dered plaster ; parian cement, if borax is used ; 
Martin's cement, if pearl ashes are employed ; a 
stucco is a very useful material for ornaments in in 
and out-door work, is nothing else but a plaster of 



67 

Paris, finely ground, and a weak glue added before 
mixing it with water. 

One of the richest kinds of hydraulic lime may 
be obtained from volcanic minerals mixed with 
limes, such material is the Puzzuolana, found near 
Naples, as well as other substances found in large 
quantities in the neighborhood of extinct volcanic 
districts, as in France and on the Rhine ; and which, 
according to its chemical analysis, consists of 44 per 
cent, of silica, 15 per cent, alumina, 87 per cent, 
lime, 4 per cent, magnesia, and 12 per cent, oxide of 
iron ; combined with lime instead of sand, have the 
property of rendering even the richest limes hydrau- 
lic, and fit for use for every description of works exe- 
cuted in the sea or in fresh water ; they have been 
used from time immemorial w T ith great success, and 
may be mixed either with fat or hydraulic limes and 
silicate of soda to form a plastic mass and assist in 
the setting of the lime. 

In regard to hydraulic cements, Fremy says that 
the setting of cements is due to two different chemi- 
cal actions : 1. To the hydration of the aluminates 
of lime, and 2. To puzzuolanic action, in w T hich the 
hydrates of lime combine with the silicates of lime 
and alumina : he found that alumina is even a better 
flux for lime than silica, and he suggests that the 
very basic compounds of these two substances, those, 
for instance, containing from 80 to 90 per cent, of 



6S HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

lime, mav be useful in the iron furnace for absorbing 
sulphur and phosphorus, and free the metal from 
those noxious impurities ; and he finds that no sub- 
stance is capable of acting as a puzzuolana except 
the simple or double silicates of lime, containing only 
from 30-40 per cent, silicate, and sufficiently basic 
to form a gelatinous precipitate with acid ; and he 
confirms Vicat's theory, that the cause of the setting 
of hydraulic cements was owing to the formation of 
a double silicate of alumina and lime absorbing wa- 
ters, forming hydrates and causing the setting of the 
materials. 

,w TlIEOUY OF HYORArLICITY. 

" Fremy has lately published his researches on 
hydraulic cements, and in giving the theory of their 
hydraulicity, he rejects the commonly received opi- 
nion that the setting of hydraulic cement is due to 
the hydration of the silicate of lime or that of double 
silicate of alumina and lime. These salts form no 
combination whatever. He attributes the setting of 
hydraulic lime to two chemical actions : 1st. To the 
hydration of the aluminate of lime ; 2d. To the re- 
action of hydrate of lime upon the silicate of lime, 
and the silicate of alumina and lime which exist in 
all cements, and in this case act as puzzuolaiias. 

" The calcination of the argillaceous limestone 
produces ::<>< >d hydraulic cement only when the pro- 



CEMENTS, ETC. 69 

portions of clay and lime are such that they form 
in the first place, an aluminate of lime, represented 
by one of the following formulae : Al 3 Ca O — Al 2 
3 2 Ca O ;— Al 2 3 3 Ca O ; in the second place a 
very simple or multiple silicate of lime which gelati- 
nizes with acids and approximates to the following 
formulae :— Si 3 2 Ca O— Si 3 3 Ca O ; and thirdly, 
free lime which may act upon the preceding puzzuo- 
lanic silicates. 

" In many cases the chemical composition of an 
argillaceous limestone is not only the condition 
which determines the quality of the cement, the 
reaction of the lime upon the clay must take place at 
the highest temperature. Indeed, this excessive heat 
produces the hydraulic elements of the cement in the 
basic conditions which the setting in the water re- 
quires, and which, by melting the alum in ate of lime, 
gives it all its activity. 

" Hydraulicity of Magnesia Hydrates. 

" Since the publication of Fremy's paper, Deville 
has read a note before the Academy of Sciences, ' On 
the Hydraulicity of Magnesia,' in which he alludes 
to a specimen of magnesia prepared by the calcina- 
tion of the chloride sent to him, seven years before, 
by M. Donny. A portion of it was left under the 
tap of his laboratory, constantly exposed to running 
water. In time it took a remarkable consistence, 

3* 



70 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

became hard enough to scratch marble, and was clear 
as alabaster. After six years exposure to the air, it 
has not perceptibly changed, and its analysis gave 
the following results : Water 27.7 per cent., carbonic 
acid S.3, alumina and oxide of iron 1.3, magnesia 
57.1, sand 5.6. Total 100. 

" Thus the substance appeared to be essentially a 
crystallized hydrate of magnesia, like brucite, which 
does not absorb carbonic acid. To proye that it was 
really so, M. Deyille prepared magnesia by calcining 
the nitrate, powdered it, made it into a plastic mass, 
and sealed in a tube with some boiled distilled water. 
After some weeks, the mass became as hard and com- 
pact as the other, and aTfeo crystalline and translncid. 
After drying in the air, this mass was found to con- 
sist of 30.7 per cent, water, and 69.3 per cent, mag- 
nesia, showing it to be a simple hydrate of magnesia. 
With similar hydrate, cast of medals were taken, 
which, on being placed in water, assumed the appear- 
ance of marble. 

" M. Balard's magnesia, prepared by calcining the 
chloride, obtained by treatment of sea water, when 
brought to a red heat shows astonishing hydraulic 
qualities, which are partially destroyed by calcining 
at a white heat. A mixture of chalk or marble and 
magnesia, in equal parts, forms a plastic mass, which, 
placed under water for some time, becomes hydrated 
and extremely hard. 



" Deville finds that dolomite rich in magnesia, 
when calcined below a red heat, powdered and made 
into a paste, forms, under water, a stone of extraor- 
dinary hardness. When dolomite is heated to bright 
redness and all the chalk is converted to quick lime, 
the paste formed with it breaks up under water. All 
these important experiments of Deville, show that 
magnesia is the binding material which, on becom- 
ing hydrated, holds together the particles of chalk 
or marble, and thus forms a compact, homogenous 
stone. 

" Hydraulic Cements. 

" Hydraulic cements owe their property of setting 
to some compound formed by the calcination of infe- 
rior limestones containing clay and silica. What the 
change is that is produced by the calcination has 
hitherto not been sufficiently well understood to ena- 
ble the manufacturers of cements to work with abso- 
lute certainty of producing a uniform product. M. 
Fremy has recently been studying the subject, and 
has communicated his observations to the Institute 
of France. He found that the calcination of a calca- 
reous clay gives rise to an alumina te of lime and a 
silicate of lime, with some free caustic lime. 

" It is this mixture that hardens when brought in 
contact with water. According to Fremy the setting 
of the cement is due to the hydration of the alumi- 



72 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

nate of lime and the combination of silica with the 
quick lime. The presence of four compounds is ne- 
cessary to a good result : 1, silicate of lime ; 2, sili- 
cate of alumina; 3, alumni ate of lime ; 4, caustic 
lime. Fremy prepared every one of these com- 
pounds, and studied them separately and together. 
He made the interesting observation that alumina 
was an excellent flux for lime, and combined with it 
quite as readily as silica. 

" The calcareous clays, or poor sorts of limestones, 
which are capable of setting under water, do not 
acquire that property until they have been exposed 
to a high heat. One of the secrets of the preparation 
of Portland cement is the high temperature employed 
in its calcination. The lime and alumina must be 
fused to secure the property of hydration. The alu- 
minate of lime is the most important agent in hy- 
draulic cements. 

" Hydraulic limestones will not yield a good 
cement unless the proportion of clay and lime be 
such as to form a compound of alumina, with one, 
two or three of lime, and the silica and lime be in 
the proportion to yield a bibasic or tribasic silicate of 
lime, which will gelatinize with acids, and there must 
be an excess of lime to be left over in a caustic state. 
The presence of magnesia, manganese or iron, is not 
at all necessary, although the latter is always con- 
tained in the poorer limestones. 



CEMENTS, ETC. TS' 

" An average sample of Portland cement will 
yield, upon analysis, in one hundred parts': Lime ? 
fifty-five ; iron, seven ; alumina, eight ; silica, twenty- 
four ; potash and soda, three ; sand, two ; water, one. 
The essential constituents are the lime, alumina and 
silica." 

The Author delivered a discourse on cements be- 
fore the Polytechnic Association, 26th April, 1866, 
of which the following is the substance : 

" Cements. 

u The subject for the evening — cements — was here 
taken up, when Dr. Lewis Feuchtwanger exhibited 
a number of minerals used in different kinds of ce- 
ments, and read the following paper : 

" ' The meaning of cement is, a paste used for unit- 
ing solid surfaces without always forming a combina- 
tion with the constituents of either surface. Many 
cements contain pulverulent substances which are 
mingled with a glutinous or very adhesive material 
and do not combine chemically ; others again form 
chemical combination's. Furthermore, many sub- 
stances are capable of assuming a liquid or semi- 
fluid form, and are thus applied between the surfaces 
of bodies which are firmly united when the fluid has 
solidified. 

" ' The most common cements are mortar and hy- 
draulic cement. We have also lutes and fire cements ; 



74 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

but as it is important to ascertain the best mode of 
obtaining a good hydraulic cement, that is, a cement 
which hardens under water, I will at once take up 
this branch of the subject, premising, however, that 
common mortar is simply a mixture of lime, water 
and sand, the best proportions being one cubic foot 
of fresh burnt lime, weighing about thirty-five 
pounds, and three and one-half cubic feet of good 
river sand, not round, but angular : these, with one 
and one-half cubic feet of water, produce about three 
.and one-half cubic feet of good mortar. 

" ■ Hydraulic or Roman cement is composed of cer- 
tain proportions of lime, sand, clay and water : after 
it has been applied a few days, and placed under 
water, it becomes very hard and like stone. We now 
find walls and piers which are known to have been 
built more than a hundred years ago, and have been 
exposed under water, and have remained as solid as 
iron. The name Roman cement is derived from the 
district of Puzzuoli, near Naples, where the natural 
material, the tufas and puzzuolanas, are in great 
abundance. The Pontine marskes around Borne and 
the volcanic tufas near Naples have always afforded 
a natural cement, for they are composed of silica, 
alumina and lime. Besides these tufas, many marls, 
belonging to the sedimentary rocks, are used as hy- 
draulic cement. The cement stones allied to the 
oolitic formation and found in argillaceous strata 



CEMENTS, ETC. 



15- 



alternating with limestone beds, and of very curious 
nodular and lenicular forms and concretions, on the 
English and French coasts, and in this country the 
septaria, toadstones, Indus helmontii of various sizes 
and consisting of siliceous clay and lime strata inter- 
woven, yield the proper material for hydraulic ce- 
ment. All these marls contain, according to analysis, 
about seventy per cent, of carbonate of lime, twenty 
per cent, of silica, and twenty per cent, of clay, and 
the lime when calcined becomes caustic, and, in com- 
bination with silica, forms, under water, a chemical 
compound, as a hydrated silicate of lime ; and, by 
the presence of clay, which is a silicate of alumina, 
forms double silicates of greater solidity. Ca O — 
CO —Si 3 — Al 2 3 . 

" ' The Roman or hydraulic cement mostly con- 
tains, also, magnesia and iron, whether of any essen- 
tial benefit or not has not been fairly tested. It is 
certain 'that neither of these substances exercise a 
pernicious influence, for the reason that dolomite, a 
magnesian limestone found in great abundance in 
this country, offers a fine material when calcined 
with any marls so abundant along our coast. It 
produces an excellent hydraulic cement. 

" ' The analysis of the hydraulic lime from Rondout, 
on the North River, gives in one hundred parts : 



Carbonic acid 35 

Magnesia 12 

Alumina , 10 



Lime 23 

Silica 15 

Iron 2 



Y6 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

" c Sand or quartz, which by itself is unfit for a 
mortar, when calcined with lime becomes very suit- 
able for a hydraulic cement or artificial stone, for it 
forms a silicate of lime. More than thirty years ago, 
I entertained the idea of preserving timber by the 
infiltration of silicate of lime into the cells of planks, 
timber, and through the double chemical affinity of 
silicate of soda and sulphate of lime. The experi- 
ments I made then, in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, w T ith 
pier piles and wooden vats, were very satisfactory. 

" ' For water-proofing cellars and buildings, not 
alone the best hydraulic, but other cements have of 
late years been introduced in this city ; for instance, 
the asphalt cement, which is very extensively em- 
ployed in the foundation of buildings. Having 
made, myself, many experiments, for a number of 
years past, in order to introduce the silica cement, 
or the soluble glass in combination with alkaline 
earths as a base, and met with varied success, I beg 
to offer here a sample of a cement wdiich consists of 
silicate of lime combined with manganese and fluor- 
spar, or fluoride of calcium, which becomes very 
hard, and which, I think, will, after some improve- 
ment in the preparation, be found highly useful in 
keeping dry walls and cellars. I have mixed equal 
quantities of manganese, limestone, fluorspar and 
dry soluble glass, and make the whole mass plastic 
.by the liquid soluble glass, and apply it while soft ; 



after the lapse of a few hours it becomes very hard. 
" ' Fire cements are lutes, for crevices and joints, 
which are intended to be used for furnaces, iron pipes 
and retorts exposed to constant red and white heat, 
or for joining gas and w^ater pipes, and many other 
substances, may, if judiciously applied, prove very 
acceptable. I beg to offer a few which I consider 
useful : 

" ' No. 1. Iron Cement or Lute. — Brick dust and 
fire clay in equal parts, borax, red lead and sal am- 
moniac, one-tenth of the other ingredients ; cast iron 
turnings. The whole mixture made up with water 
so as to knead them together, and spread it in layers^ 
It is suitable for crevices or joints of iron pipes, fur- 
nace doors, man holes of boilers, etc. 

" ' No. 2. A Steam-resisting Cement. — Two parts- 
litharge, one part sand, one part slacked lime; made 
plastic with hot glue. 

" ' No. 3. An Iron Cement. — Manganese twenty- 
four parts, red lead five parts ; formed into a paste 
with linseed oil. 

"'No. 4. Cement for Fastening Iron and Stone.. 
— Calcined plaster, iron filings and hot glue. 

The three following are good cements for cisterns, 
etc. : 

" ' 1st. Ten parts of plaster of Paris, two of 
Glauber salts, four of clay, and four of lime 

" ' 2d. Twenty-two parts of clay, nine of iron 



filings, sixty-three of lime, one of magnesia, one of 
peal ash, and ten of charcoal. 

" ' 3d. Thirty parts of sand, seventy of lime, three 
of litharge, made up with linseed oil. 

" ' A very remarkable cement, for almost any sub- 
stance, is made in the following manner: Either glue 
or gelatine is swelled up in water and then immersed 
in linseed oil and heated. It dissolves and forms a 
paste of great tenacity, which, when dry, resists 
dampness perfectly. Two pieces of wood joined by 
it may separate anywhere except at the joint. 

" ' The china or diamond cement, for joining glass 
or china ware, consists of gum mastic and ammonia 
dissolved in alcohol, to which is added hot glue. 
Spalding's glue is the old Berzelius paste, that is, 
glue dissolved in acetic acid. The Japanese cement 
is rice flour made into a paste and dried. 

" ' In LSil, a patent for a lime cement was obtained 
by Kuhlman, who adds an alkali, like soda or potash, 
before calcining the limestone with sand and clay, bo 
as to produce a soluble silicate with the ingredients 
of hydraulic cement. 

" ' The Portland stone or cement, so extensively 
used in England, and exported largely from there to 
all parts of the globe, ancf forming the base of many 
patent cements, such as Keese's and others, is nothing 
but powdered oolite, a mineral lime deposit. Hame- 
liifs mastic cement, another very celebrated cement, 



CEMENTS, ETC. 79 

is prepared from sixty-two parts of oolite, thirty-five 
of sand, and three of litharge. 

" ' The celebrated French cement of Bouilly is 
said to be prepared from the Boulogne pebbles, called 
golets, which are marly nodules of all sizes, like the 
septarias and marly concretions of other countries. 
A number of years ago, I prepared a good hydraulic 
cement from one part of the poorest limestone, one 
of clay, and three of sand. I also prepared a terra 
cotta, which is likewise a cement, composed of clay 
and sand, slowly dried and calcined. 



*s 



" c Common Mohtar. 

" ' Limestone, an impure carbonate of lime, when 
exposed to a -red heat, loses carbonic acid gas, and the 
oxide of calcium or lime remains. This process of 
burning lime, as it is called, is accelerated by the 
presence of moisture in the stone, or by the introduc- 
tion of a small quantity of steam into the lime kiln. 
The hydrate of lime reacts with considerable power 
on siliceous compounds, but the action only takes 
place at the surfaces, and unless the lime is used in 
very thin layers, between smooth stones, it still re- 
tains, in the centre of the layer, its own soft and fria- 
ble condition. 

" ' In order to make the hydrate of lime effective 
as a cement, it is mixed with sand, one of the most 
abundant of natural compounds, now regarded as 



HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

sisting of two atoms of oxygen and one of silicon. 
Equal parts of line and coarse sand are said to be 
better than either quality used separately with lime. 
Mortar designed for exterior or surface work is gene- 
rally made with fine sand. When lime is compara- 
tively free from impurities and crumbles to a fine 
powder on being slaked, it is called fat lime, and will 
require about six times its own weight of sand, or, if 
estimated by bulk, one cubic foot of semi-fluid lime 
and water, called tbe milk of lime, will require about 
three or four cubic feet of sand. This mortar is very 
effective as a cement when well dried or set, but if it 

Laced in water the lime is gradually dissolved and 
the mass is disintegrated. 

" : FIydkaulic Cement. 

*' * For -all permanent structures under water it is, 
therefore, essential to use a material called hydraulic 
cement, which is a mixture of lime with other oxides 
ssing the valuable quality of hardening until it 
soli :id permanency ol' the masses of 

bound together by it. The varieties of lime- 
stone from which hydraulic cement is made, when 
burned, yi< hi a lime that is very -lowly slaked. All 
that is required is to add water until it attain- the 
ncy <»'' dough, it will then harden and become 
These hydraulic limes mav be made arti- 
lly .by mixing with impure slaked lime a quantity 



CEMENTS, ETC. 81 

of burnt clay in the proper proportions. The cele- 
brated Roman cement was a porous volcanic rock 
found at Puzzucli, near ^Naples, and called there puz- 
zuolana. It consists of silicate of alumina, soda and 
lime. This substance is pulverized and mixed with 
common lime. ? " 

The Silicate Hydraulic Cement in the Preten- 
tion of AYall-Damp. 

In laving the foundation of any building, the mat- 
ter of particular consideration should be the thorough 
drainage of the site, and next to that complete pre- 
vention of wall-damp, that is, the rising of moisture 
by capillary attraction or otherwise, in the heart of 
the brick or stone work, the particulars of which 
have been lately described in ti anafactiiver and 

Builder s Journal* to which the author had added 
the silicifieation of the bricks and plaster. It states 
that wherever brickwork comes in contact with the 
earth, or even with adjacent walls which may happen 
to be damp, there the infection is certain to take, and 
there is no easy care for it, if once it makes an en- 
trance. 

The readiest remedy in all cases is a layer of fine 
concrete, which may be thinly coated on the top with 
asphaltum laid on hot. This done all around the top 
of the walls, external and internal, the piers and every 
piece of brickwork, that in any manner has conne.c- 



82 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

tion with the ground, then the bricks, which ought 
to be specially prepared before calcination with a si- 
licate solution, should be heated over charcoal fur- 
naces and their beds dipped in the asphaltum before 
being laid. It is evident that a preventive course 
could thus be formed above ground at a trifling ex- 
pense, wholly impervious to w r all-dam, at the same 
time giving a bedding to the superstructure of a qua- 
lity very far superior to any now in use. Coating the 
outside face of the walling with w T aterproof silicated 
cement, as has been before noticed, is only the safe- 
guard against capillary attraction from below, and 
excluding the external air which might let the artifi- 
cial heat of the rooms to attract the enemy of wall- 
damp. It is known that common brick will absorb 
1-5 of its weight of w T ater, and where the storm drives 
the rain continually against the face of a wall for a 
sufficient time to permit the interior heat to attract 
it, the inside of the wall must, of necessity, be damp, 
and the papering become mouldy, as well as the ceil- 
ing, will next be rotten. This cause of wall-damp is 
one that cannot be too carefully guarded against, as 
it is one to which may be referred the early decay of 
many residences, as well as the inception of these 
pulmonary symptoms which so surely steal away the 
health and ultimately the life of many a victim. 

The mortar to be used in the foundation and the 
wall ought to be very well prepared so as to possess 



85 

all the hydraulic properties and silicification, and 
caution should be taken in not using sea sand, which 
will certainly create the damp by absorbing all the 
water in the atmosphere, this being the chemical 
effect of its saline property. 

The surface of the walls of the rooms must be well 
attended to : the plaster of Paris, which is generally 
employed, ought to be properly silicified, so as to 
prevent the absorbtion of the natural damp of the 
atmosphere created in uninhabited and unheated 
rooms. 

It is preferable to paint rooms than to paper them,, 
for the white lead and linseed oil, with a little lith- 
arge to facilitate the drying, becomes hard after a 
short tim<^ aad assists the fresh plaster wall of pre- 
\ ' ig the admission of the moisture ; as the fourth 
coating of white lead is applied with equal propor- 
tions of oil and spirits of turpentine, which has the 
property of being very volatile, will evaporate en- 
tirely, leaving the surface of the paint of a very com- 
pact and hard nature, and rendering the plaster inca- 
pable of absorbtion. 

Among the great variety of cements in which silica 
is the active principal, the two following are very 
useful : 

1. A mortar to be made as hard as any cement, 
and which does not crack in setting, and even of 
great usefulness as hydraulic cement under water, 



84 

is obtained by mixing finely slacked lime with fine 
sand [the angular grains are always preferable to the 
round grains for producing a good mortar]. By mix- 
ing the sand thus prepared with finely powdered 
quick lime, and stir the mixture thoroughly. During 
the process the mass heats, and may then be em- 
ployed as mortar, to which has to be added one- 
eighth of the mass the liquid silicate of soda. 

One part of good slacked lime was used with three 
parts of sand, and to this was added three-fourths of 
its weight of finely powdered quicklime ; the mortar 
containing one-eighth of the liquid silicate of soda was 
then used as a foundation wall, and in four days had 
become so hard that a piece of sharp iron would not 
attack it ; and in two months afterwards it had be- 
come as hard as the stones of the wall. 

2. A thin coating of slaked lime made into paste 
with water or whitewash is put at once on the stone, 
and before becoming quite dry apply the silicate so- 
lution over the paste, by which the mass becomes 
completely insoluble; a petrification takes place if 
applied to vegetable substances, decomposition is 
prevented, porous building stone and brick are pro- 
tected against air and damp. 

Damp Walls and Cellars. 

The application of silicates for preventing the 
penetration of rain or moisture in houses, whereby 



CEMENTS, ETC. 85 

the walls are absorbing the same, and render the 
paper-hangings or delicate paint unfit, so as to de- 
stroy their appearance, has been amply and satisfac- 
torily proved. The silicates of soda and potash, or 
either of them, are mixed with pure white lead or 
zinc, and applied soon after upon the walls, which 
will dry immediately. 

The presence of damp in walls arises from three 
causes : either from the porous condition of the mate- 
rials of which they are built, allowing the penetration 
of damp from without ; from the existence of salts 
in the mortar, bricks or stone, which absorb and give 
out* moisture, according* to the changes of the wea- 
ther, or from damp foundations. The first only can 
be remedied by the application of external coatings, 
the second by battening the walls, and the last by 
removing the adjacent earth from the foundations. 

As has already been seated that a single applica- 
tion of a paint formed with lead or zinc has proved 
very successful. The second application is the sili- 
cate solution with china clay, or pure alumina, which 
has the advantage of not drying so quick as that 
with lead or zinc. In all cases the paints must be 
put on uniformly, so that the whole wall surface 
should be completely covered with the solid coat, 
and in order to effect this a rough stucco surface, 
from two to three coats, may be required. It is found 

4 



86 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

also useful to apply the second coat thinner than the 
first. 

The mixture of liquid silicate of soda with clay 
and that of whiting, or washed carbonate of lime, 
may probably be the most reliable for keeping out 
damp from walls as well as cellars. 

On applying the lead or zinc as the first coat, 
either of them or both, it may be done in the follow- 
ing manner ; 

Mix them with a little water and lay them on the 
stone, they will dry very soon ; apply then the silicate 
solution by means of a syringe. If the application is 
to be made on stone which shows some decay, it is 
necessasy to remove first the same, apply then the 
aluminous silicate of soda (by an equal mixture of 
liquid silicate with fine white clay), and then apply 
the carbonate lime and silicate wash with an ordinary 
paijit brush, stippling it so as to give it the appear- 
ance of the granulated surface of the stone. When 
dry it will adhere sufficiently to allow of other washes 
of silicates being brushed on it. 

The conditions necessary for success are : 

1. The wall should be coated with a porous mate- 
rial, such as lime or Portland cement. 

2. The coating must be perfect. A wall which 
has beeD once painted is altogether unfit for any ap- 
plication of siliceous washes, for the reason that it is 
not absorbent enough. 



87 

The best ground for any siliceous work is lime and 
sand. In new buildings it would be better to use 
lime and sand at once, and then to cover it with lime 
and silicate of alumina and soda. The precipitated 
sulphate of baryta may safely be applied in the sili- 
cate of soda for all the above purposes, and it will 
produce a good coating and a fine paint. 

Under the name of liquid stone, Fleury describes 
the application of the alkaline silicates in the follow- 
ing manner : 

" The first idea that suggests itself of the use of 
such a liquid is the preparation of artificial stones 
for ornamental and building purposes. Should it 
be possible to produce this petrifying liquid cheap 
enough, building-stones in all their variety could be 
made and cemented together with the same petrify- 
ing solution. The cost of cast flint-marble statuary, 
tombstones, baths, tables, mantel-pices, and orna- 
ments of all kinds, would be, of course, much less 
than if laboriously cut from the stone, and they 
come quickly into universal use. In a similar way, 
as photography now diffuses the masterpieces of the 
art of painting among all classes of society, and cul- 
tivates their taste, the art of casting fiint-marble 
would multiply and diffuse the masterpieces of sculp- 
ture, and adorn our public buildings, gardens and 
parks. Bas-reliefs, cameos, cornices, columns, pillars, 
etc., might be produced at comparatively cheap 



88 

prices. Should the liquid be of a kind to permit its 
application to outside or inside walls, like plaster, 
then we could cover our brick and stone houses with 
white or colored flint-marble fronts, and our churches, 
halls, theatres, parlors and rooms with glass-like walls 
and ceilings, colored ad libitum with elegant frescoes 
as durable as the still fresh paintings at Herculaneum 
and Pompeii; while the floors could be inlaid with 
beautifully colored stones in mosaic style. 

" Another important application for such a liquid 
would be the one to render wood non-inflammable, 
rot and water-proof. By making w^ood non-inflam- 
mable, we should greatly diminish the danger to 
which most of our old and new buildings are now 
exposed. This could easily be effected, and with not 
much cost, by impregnating the wood with a properly 
prepared solution of flint ; for, if once the pores of 
the wood, which by their capillary action cause the 
communication of the fire to the whole structure, be 
stopped up by the incombustible and non-conducting 
silica, the wood becomes non-inflammable, and at the 
same time proof against water and decay. Not less 
important would be the partial silicification of rail 
road-sleepers and cross-ties, house, ship and bridge 
timber : they would be stronger and last longer. 
Telegraph-poles would, when properly treated, be- 
come more durable, and be, in addition, better non- 
conductors of electricity. What a new field would 



CEMENTS, ETC. 89 

such a petrifying fluid open to the manufacture of 
incombustible paints and varnishes? It might also 
be mixed with paper pulp, or cheap vegetable or ani- 
mal fibre, and serve for the manufacture of a variety 
of useful articles, such as staircases, boxes, trunks, 
soles for boots and shoes, patterns, moulds, handles, 
parts of machinery, photographic instruments, piano- 
keys ; and, further, it might be used as a coating for 
preventing the oxidation of iron or other metals. 
We must not overlook another important application 
in the use of the liquid flint — the one for the preser- 
vation of old monuments and stone buildings. It 
might, perhaps, also serve * as a medium for the pre- 
servation of meat, fruit, vegetables, eggs, etc. The 
linings of barrels, for oils and other liquids, the 
coating of tanks, tubs, sulphuric-acid chambers, etc., 
are other useful applications of this liquid. 

a Metallurgy could be very materially benefited 
by a process whereby quartz could cheaply and 
spejdiiy be dissolved in water ; for we could then 
take the gold quartz of Nova Scotia, New Hamp- 
shire, or Canada, and dissolve the quartz, and obtain 
all the gold as a precipitate. Of course, as the liquid 
flint could be used for so many useful purposes, and 
be sold for a good price, the extraction of the gold 
would be very cheap, and, so to speak, cost less than 
nothing, as the extraction price of the gold would be 



90 

more than paid for by the amount realized from the 
sale or use of the liquid." 

Hydraulic Mortar from American Limestone. 

These limestones contain mostly lime, silica, alu- 
mina, oxide of iron and magnesia, which form the 
proper materials for the preparation of mortars; they 
will withstand the action of water and moisture bet- 
ter in proportion as the quantity of silica, alumina 
and magnesia is larger ; they contain 40 per cent, 
carbonate of lime, 30 per cent, carbonate of magne- 
sia, and 20 per cent, silica, the balance is alumina 
and oxide of iron, and they form a good mortar and 
a good building material ; but when the magnesia is 
too prevalent, will deteriorate it for building pur- 
poses, it being too friable. The dolomite, which is 
also called bitterspar, a magnesian limestone, is a 
double carbonate of lime and magnesia, and abun- 
dant in the United States, is a granular limestone, 
and a hardness of 3.5, a spec. gr. of 3.1, and consist- 
ing of 70 per cent, lime and nearly 40 per cent, of 
magnesia and some oxide of iron and manganese, is 
unfit by itself as a building material, having a great 
tendency to crumble into small fragments, and forms 
likewise an inferior material for burning and con- 
verting it into cement, because it lacks the silica in- 
dispensable for this purpose. By an addition of an 
alkaline silicate, either the silicate of potash or soda, 



91 

and an addition of some alumina, will, after burning, 
produce a good hydraulic cement, particularly in 
such localities where no good native hydraulic lime- 
stone is found. Not alone France and Germany are 
particularly rich in deposits of hydraulic lime, and in 
the United States likewise, but these in our neighbor- 
hood may be particularly mentioned at Rondout, on 
the western shore of the Hudson River, 100 miles 
distant from New York. The quarrying in those 
subterranean rocks for hydraulic cement and also 
common limestone is carried on. in that region, along 
a large extent of the valley of the Rosedale River ; 
through this valley the Hudson and Delaware Canal 
is constructed, which brings the coal from the Lack- 
awanna valley at Carbondale directly to the Hudson 
River. This coal being a very pure anthracite is ad- 
mirably adapted for use in the limestone and cement 
furnaces situated at the junction of this canal with 
the Hudson River. 

In burning hydraulic limestone not only the car- 
bonic acid and water of hydration are drawn off, as is 
the case with common limestone, but after the lime 
and magnesia have parted with their carbonic acid, 
at the high temperature of the furnace, they act on 
the silica and alumina, as it were, like two powerful 
bases, and a silicate of lime and magnesia, as also 
silicate of alumina and aluminate of lime, are formed. 
The exact chemical reaction during the burning pro- 



92 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

cess is however as jet not well understood, and un- 
doubtedly varies in different limestones, according to 
their chemical constitution, which latter appears also 
to vary considerably, but without affecting mate- 
rially their useful properties. 

In regard to the theoretical causes of the harden- 
ing process, which takes place under water, it may 
be remarked that this curious and interesting pheno- 
menon, being of an entirely chemical nature, lias 
largely drawn towards itself the attention of eminent 
chemists, who have attempted to explain it in accord- 
ance with well known chemical laws. All hydraulic 
limestones may, by the ordinary method of analysis, 
be decomposed into two component parts; the one 
consisting of the carbonates of the earth, such as 
lime, magnesia, etc., which, like ordinary limestones, 
yield a fat lime ; the other, a silicate, or rather a 
mixture of the silicates of alumina, magnesia, lime, 
and sometimes potassa, as we find in the felspar, 
which is a silicate of alumina and potash, and a 
greater or less excess of free silica ; the latter consti- 
tuent is, therefore, simply a kind of clay. The reac- 
tion during the burning process has been already 
alluded to. Now when such freshly burnt cement is 
mixed with water, the excess of caustic lime as well 
the compound into which the siliceous clay has been 
converted during the burning, react upon one another 
in such a manner, that a solid stone-like silicate is 



CEMENTS. ETC. 93 

produced in the humid way, the water has a double 
action, dry substances, such as lime and silicate of 
alumina, do not act one upon another, unless the sol- 
vent power of water is brought into play so as to 
bring them into close contact ; the water transfers 
continually the lime it dissolves to the silica. The 
absolute necessity of keeping such mortar under 
water, in order to have it harden, is thus explained. 
Another action of the water is this : it enters into a 
state of hydration in the silicate of lime as soon as 
formed. It must also be observed that the molecular 
condition of the silica is of the utmost importance in 
this process. Fine sand will not combine with lime, 
when the latter is dissolved in water that is in a form 
known under the name of limewater, but silica preci- 
pitated from a soluble glass solution by means of an 
acid, which produces the gelatinous form of silica, 
will at once combine with the lime in limewater and 
form a silicate of lime. The silica in the hydraulic 
mortar is also in a state, not like fine sand, but che- 
mically combined and dissolved in the mass, and 
therefore ready to combine with the lime in lime- 
water. Xext in importance to silica is the magnesia, 
which renders the lime hydraulic, which, according 
to Fuchs, has been proved that lime and magnesia 
well mixed will harden under water to a certain ex- 
tent without the addition of silica ; for we have in 
Oermany a hydraulic lime containing only 4 per 



94 

cent. When silica is found to the extent of 52 per 
cent., the point of saturation is reached, and such 
limestone is no more hydraulic. Alumina and iron 
may be entirely absent, although the former is always 
present in the best kinds of hydraulic mortars, of 
which that of Rondout, usually called Rosendale 
cement, and with the employment of which the 
Croton Water Works of New York City were built, 
is the best on this continent. 

It is confidently to be hoped that by the proper ap- 
plication of alkaline silicates will contribute much 
to the manufacture of an artificial hydraulic cement. 

German Hydraulic Cement. 

This material, artificially prepared, is in great use 
and is of very peculiar composition : unquestionably 
it is intended to form a silicate-aluminate of lime, or, 
in other words, an argillaceous silicate, but the ad- 
mixture, such as charcoal and iron filings, cannot be 
explained, but the base being obtained by the pro- 
duction of an alkaline silicate bespeaks for it a useful 
vehicle as a cement. 

It is prepared with 25 parts common clay, 60 parts 
lime, 10 parts magnesian limestone, 10 parts iron 
filings, and 10 parts of black oxide of manganese ; 
these materials, in very fine powders, are made plas- 
tic by the liquid silicate of soda, at once applied as a 



CEMENTS, ETC. 95 

cement or mortar, but it will not set at once, six 
hours being required for the mass to harden. 

Hardness of Ancient Mortars. 

Mr. Spillar communicated a paper on this subject 
to the British Association, in 1868, of which the fol- 
lowing are the conclusions, from the chemial exami- 
nation of the ancient mortars from Burgh, Pevesney, 
and other Roman castles : that the lime and carbonic 
acid are invariably united in monatomic proportions, 
as in the original limestone rock ; and that there is 
no evidence of the hydrate of lime having at any 
time exerted a power of corroding the surfaces of 
sand, flint, pebbles, or even of burned clay, with 
which it must have been in contact for long periods. 
Further, that the water originally combined with the 
lime has been entirely eliminated during this process 
of recarbonation ; and, this stage passed, the amor- 
phous carbonate of lime seems to have been gradu- 
ally transformed by the joint agency of water and 
carbonic acid into more or less perfectly crystallized 
deposits or concretions, by virtue of which its bind- 
ing properties must have been very considerably aug- 
mented. Messrs. Abel and Bloxam assign, as one of 
the causes of the hardening of mortars, the formation 
and subsequent crystallization of the carbonate of 
lime. 

Stinde proposes the silicate as a very useful ce- 



90 

ment by mixing equal parts of oxide of manganese 
and oxide of zinc, and making tliem into a thinnish 
paste with the silicate of soda, which paste, quickly 
applied, sets very rapidly ; and by mixing the hy- 
draulic lime to this composition, it is a cement which 
will resist permanently also the action of water and 
heat : 

" Cement axd Mortar or the Ancients. 

" We all know how enthusiastic some are in their 
praises of those ancient structures which have re- 
sisted for ages the ravages of time. They imagine 
that they are at liberty to draw conclusions which 
are not the most favorable to the architecture of the 
present time. Although they may be in a measure 
correct, it can not be denied that such critics are too 
partial in their admiration for things ancient as op- 
posed to things modern. We frequently hear the 
remark that some of the Roman mortars have en- 
dured for eighteen centuries the vicissitudes of time, 
while many buildings of now-a-days present, in a 
very brief period, the sign of quick decay ; but they 
forget that these ancient buildings constitute an ex- 
ceedingly small fraction of the enormous number of 
those erected during many centuries in Egypt, Greece, 
Rome, and her provinces. They do not consider that 
thousands of temples, palaces, and private dwellings 
Iimvc l)o •]) entirely destroyed. And what answer can 



CEMENTS, ETC. ^7 

they assign to the fact that the very complaints they 
indulge in were even more frequent then than now ? 
Pliny asserts that the reason of the falling in of many 
"buildings in Rome was to be attributed to the fact of 
the bad quality of the mortar. 

" Still more important than this argument is that 
of Vitruvius, the architect of Augustus. He has left 
a work on Roman architecture in which we find 
nothing that entitles us to place the architects of 
antiquity above those of the present time. Again, 
it has not been taken into account that a great part 
of the extraordinary strength of antique architecture 
is more the effect of time than the mechanical skill 
of the builder, or the virtues of his cements, as we 
propose to show hereafter. Pliny and Vitruvius both 
explain, to the best of their knowledge, what kind of 
materials the builders selected for their cements, and 
how they were prepared. The process was identical 
with the modern modus operandi. It is true that the 
old Romans were particularly careful in the selection 
of materials for their mortar, as well as in its prepa- 
ration. They were aware that they must calcine the 
limestone, and mix it with sand, in order to apply it ; 
but did not possess any correct idea of the change 
which limestone undergoes in the process of calcina- 
tion, nor of that which is the cause of the cohesive 
quality of mortar. 

" Many centuries elapsed before these facts were 



98 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

understood and explained. Black, in 1757, started 
the explanatory theory by the discovery of carbonic 
acid. A few years previous to this, Marggraf, the 
discoverer of sugar in beets, found the elements of 
gypsum, which was already employed by the Romans ; 
and, in 1768, Lavoisier demonstrated the causes of the 
hardening of burnt gypsum w T hen it is mixed with 
water. 

" The ancients, therefore, put their practical know- 
ledge to the best possible account. As they were de- 
ficient in chemical knowledge, they were guided only 
by what observation taught them. Their chief care 
was centred in the exterior. In the selection of lime- 
stone, the color decided. The white ones were con- 
sidered best, and the colored ones were seldom used. 
Those taken from the interior of the earth were pre- 
ferred to the stones which were met with upon the 
shores of rivers. A law provided that the lime must 
have been slacked three years before it could be used. 
The same also prescribed the quantity of sand which 
must be mixed with the lime, mentioning also that 
crushed cherts imparted a greater strength to the 
mortar. Its preparation was, as it were, a state affair, 
the censors watching carefully over it. In spite of all 
this, it often happened, as Pliny states, that they did 
not attain the object in view. 

" But in the advance of chemical science, the fact 
has been established that a mortar can be prepared 



99 

that, in the course of one or two years, will be as 
strong and durable as Roman mortar after the lapse 
of two thousand years. The builders of the ancients 
were not farther advanced than those of the middle 
ages. The walls of the Bastile, for instance, were so 
strong that they had to be blasted away. This had 
likewise to be done in the removal of the remnants 
of a bridge at Agen, built about the year 1200 ; and 
the mortar of a bridge erected at Cahours in 1400 
was even found to be considerably stronger than that 
of the antique theatre of the same city. 

" The Romans were also acquainted with hydraulic 
cement. The merit of this knowledge is, however, 
considerably lessened when we consider that the same 
is found in the volcanic districts of Southern Italy. 
A mere accidental observation, the same being, per- 
haps, mixed with sand instead of lime, may have led 
to its application. Says Vitruvius : 'There exists a 
kind of dust which produces strange things; it is 
found near Baja and the Yesuvius. When mixed 
with lime, it forms a mortar which not only imparts 
great strength to buildings, but also to water works/ 

" The natural cement in question is a volcanic 
pumice-stone, like breccia, which is still found in 
the environs of Naples. At a less remote period of 
time, when the Romans invaded the valleys of the 
Lower Rhine, they easily recognized the volcanic 
nature of the Brohl Valley. Here, as well as amid 



100 

the surroundings of the beautiful Laacher Lake, 
which lies like a jewel set in the midst of the long- 
extinct Rhenish volcanoes, they discovered another 
natural cement — the trass — in such considerable 
quantities that the quarries which were opened at 
that time are still in existence. The use of hydraulic 
cement in ancient times could, therefore, have been 
only a limited one, as it was found only at the two 
places mentioned. Its artificial preparation was not 
understood. The solution of this problem was re- 
served for the investigating minds of the present pro- 
gressive century." 

" Hydraulic Cement. 

" This material is justly esteemed far superior to 
metal of any description for the lining of cisterns, the 
water-proofing of cellar-bottoms, and similar pur- 
poses. A few directions for its preparation and use 
may not be out of place. To make water-proof 
work, it must be borne in mind that common lime 
must not be used at all; for on common lime water 
or moisture has an effect just the opposite to that 
which it has on the water lime, rendering it soft and 
quite friable when dried ; whilst on the water-lime 
the well-known effect is to make it perfectly hard. 
No mixture of these two varieties of lime can, there- 
fore, be made under water. But, although they do 
not act well together even under ground, they serve 



CEMENTS, ETC. 101 

well in dry places, such as buildings whose walls are 
of extra thickness ; and if proper care be taken, they 
will conjointly form a very compact and powerful 
cement. The fact that water-lime shrinks when wet, 
while common lime, in the same state, swells, at once 
points out the manner of treatment to be pursued in 
uniting the two thoroughly. Thus, it is necessary to 
ascertain the per centage of shrinking of the one and 
increase in the other, as nearly as possible, before the 
proportion of one to the other can be determined, 
with a view to their intimate combination. Such 
experiments are the more necessary when we consider 
the great difference which exists in the quality of 
both kinds of lime in various localities. The simplest 
and most effectual mode of testing water-lime is to 
put several portions of different makes into small 
bags of flannel, and throw them into a basin of water. 
After three minutes' immersion, take them all out at 
once, and squeeze each in the hand. Then take off 
each bag, and that which is best isjtrmest, and when 
thrown naked into the water again, loses least of its 
outer coat. If none of them will bear uncovering at 
three minutes, try four, five minutes, but this latter 
should be the longest test. The test for common lime 
is, on the contrary, the bursting open and evolving of 
caloric in a greater or less degree ; and the conse- 
quent action of the water will show, by its bubbles, 
the power of the lime. 



102 

" It is the per centage of clay contained in any spe- 
cimen of lime that determines the solidifying pro- 
perty of the cement made from it. The best hydrau- 
lic lime contains silex, lime and magnesia, or alumina. 
Its solidification is attributable to the formation of 
silicate of alumina and lime, or of magnesia and 
lime, which combines with water, and produces a 
hydrate excessively hard and insoluble in water. 
The hardening of hydraulic lime may, then, be 
compared to that of calcined plaster, which also 
combines with w^ater to form a solid hydrate ; which 
calcined plaster, from the large quantities of it man- 
ufactured near that city, is commonly known as 
Plaster of Paris. A limestone containing thirty 
per cent, of clay makes a quick-setting cement ; and 
we have in the United States the Rosendale and the 
Bellville cements, having forty and fifty per cent. 
They become exceedingly hard when plunged in 
water for from two to three minutes. Both these 
cements, especially the former, have been used ex- 
tensively by our engineers. 

" Inferiority in the quality of hydraulic lime may 
be produced by the want of proper care during its 
manufacture, the stone being calcined at too high a 
temperature ; the double silicate in such case becom- 
ing a sort of frit, which does not hydrate in contact 
with water. 

" As hydraulic lime is expensive, according to the 



CEMENTS, ETC. 103 

distance of its transportation, we will here give the 
method of making an artificial hydraulic lime, accord- 
ing to the highly successful experiments of M. Vicat 
a celebrated French engineer and the author of a 
much esteemed work on hydraulic cement, w T ho first 
pointed out the method to be adopted in its forma- 
tion. It is prepared by stirring into water a mixture 
of one part of clay and four parts of chalk ; these 
materials should be mixed by a vertical wheel turn- 
ing in a circular trough, and made to flow out into a 
large receiver. A deposit soon takes place, which is 
formed into small bricks, which, after being dried in 
the air, are moderately calcined. Hydraulic lime 
thus prepared enlarges about two-thirds in volume 
when placed in water. Like the natural hydraulic 
lime, it can be completely dissolved by acids. This 
invention of artificial hydraulic lime has rendered 
Yicat deservedly famous, as it has been in use for 
many years in the public works throughout France, 
and was even employed in the hydraulic masonry of 
the St. Martin canal. That it can be made in this 
country there is no doubt, as the argillaceous or pot- 
ter's clay required is to be found almost everywhere. 
The new cement which M. Sorel proposed to the 
French Academy consists in the application of a 
basic hydrated oxychloride of magnesium, may un- 
questionably be improved by means of a silicated 
hydraulic lime and the bittern of the salines, which 



104 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

is a chloride of magnesium in a concentrated con- 
dition. 

Lime, sand and clay, wlien mixed with water, form 
the so-called composition of a hydraulic cement : 
they are fit to unite solid surfaces by hardening after 
a few days application, under water, by forming a 
combination with the constituents of either surface. 
Walls and piers have been built for over one hundred 
years, and after being exposed under water have be- 
come harder and harder. This cement is also called 
Roman cement, because the natural materials are 
found in abundance in the Roman district where the 
tufas, puzzuolanas and trass, all products of volcanic 
districts, like the Pontine Marshes of Rome, and 
near Naples, are abundant, and consist of those ele- 
mentary substances. In the volatic formations of 
the triassic period the marls or green sand, the cu- 
rious nodular and lenticular concretions, the Septa- 
rias and ludus Helmontii, of turtle shape, all found 
in argillaceous strata of the sedimentary rocks which 
are alternating with limestone beds, and all found in 
abundance on the English and French coasts and the 
United States, all of them form a siliceous clay inter- 
mixed with lime, and are, therefore, the proper mate- 
rial for a hydraulic lime or cement ; the Portland 
cement is largely manufactured at the mouth of the 
Thames, the Roman is also manufactured in England 
from the materials or nodules picked up or found in 



CEMENTS, ETC. J 05 

the cliffs near Harwich ; the septarias are from the 
London clay, and yield good cement. The marls of 
New Jersey, which are called green sand, occur in a 
large belt of cretaceous rocks, have of late years- - 
been of great importance to the Jersey farmers, 
and have a similar composition of lime, silica and 
clay forms, all excellent materials for a hydraulic 
cement. 

This cretaceous belt with its clay as a foundation 
and boundless supplies of silica forms the most pro- 
ductive strip of country and is well worth the con- 
sideration of a reflecting mind and the manufacturers 
of these substances. Most of the above materials 
contain about 70 procent Lime, 20 procent clay, and 
20 procent silica, which when calcined, the Lime be- 
comes caustic and forms with the silica and clay a 
double silicate of this form such as CaO — C0 3 , SiO s , 
Al 3 H. O. 

The Portland cement is exported largely trom 
England and according to the manufacturers name is 
called Reess, Hamilton and other cements and will 
bear a strength varying from 20 — 60ft. to the square 
inch. 

The celebrated french cement of Bouilly is prepared 
in Boulogne from the pebbles called Golets which are 
nodules found in that region. The Terra Cotta is also 
a cement of clay and silica. 

Silicate of soda or potash may be mixed with the 



106 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

particles of any material or body, sucli as common 
sand, dust, sawdust, clay, chalk, marble-dust, metal- 
filings, etc. ; a paste may be formed of the same, 
which, in a short time, will become hard and tena- 
cious. Common clay thus mixed forms a fine and 
plastic mass, and becomes very hard. Saw-dust can 
be formed into any shape, acquires considerable 
strength combined with lightness, and has been pro- 
posed as an excellent non-conductor of heat. A 
cake of the same five-eighths of an inch thick may 
be placed on a white-hot iron for half an hour, and 
while its under side in contact with the iron will get 
charred, the upper side will get but little warmed. 

The adhesion of all these various pastes to glass, 
minerals and metals is most remarkable, but, unfortu- 
nately, all of them except those formed with the 
carbonates of lime and some woods, do not resist 
humidity or water. However hard any article 
formed of sand, clay, etc., and silicate, may have 
become, however dry and old, the same is soon dis- 
solved or reduced to its component parts when com- 
ing into contact with water, or when exposed to 
humid air. 

The combination of the silicates with the carbon- 
ates of lime form a remarkable exception to the 
above. After the lapse of a comparatively short 
time, the objects formed of a paste of the same and 
silicate become hard and perfectly indissoluble in 



CEMENTS, ETC. 107 

cold or hot water, and will resist humidity and 
weather. But their property to adhere to metals, 
more especially to iron, is so remarkable that 
the idea suggested itself to use the same as a 
coating for iron, either merely for ornamental pur- 
poses, for protection against rust or fire, etc. A 
series of experiments and tests fully proved the prac- 
ticability of the process, and a patent was applied 
for and granted to B. Oertly and X. Fendrich for 
the same. 

This coating of iron with marble and silicates, it 
may safely be said, constitutes one decided step for- 
ward in the use of silicates, and even of iron. 
While offering the most comprehensive protection 
to iron, the coating is susceptible of any coloring 
and of any finish of marble. Iron columns, espe- 
cially wrought-iron columns, can thus be rendered 
beautiful, while receiving additional security in cases 
of fire from the low power of conducting heat of the 
coating. Table plates, billiard plates, counter tops, 
doors or door-panels, shutters, etc., while vieing in 
appearance with stone, are rendered strong by their 
iron skeleton. In connection with saw-dust the 
coating forms the best coating for boilers and steam- 
pipes. As the co-efficient of contraction and expan- 
sion of the coating is almost identical with that of 
iron, exposure to heat and to great differences of 
temperature will not injure its sticking qualities, 



108 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

and this singular quality of the coating really con- 
stitutes its excellence. 

The science of heating and ventilating public and 
private buildings has been extensively investigated 
and discussed for the last thirty years, and not with- 
out many practical and beneficial results. The me- 
chanical laws governing the subject, if no better 
understood than in the days of Peclet, are more 
generally heeded. The chemical constitution of 
fresh and pure air, of vitiated or contaminated air, 
has been ascertained by the most refined methods, 
in the valley, on the mountain, in town and country, 
in the bed-room and public hall, almost all over the 
globe. An endless number of hot-air, hot-water, or 
steam-heating systems, of more or less or no value 
or merit, are at the choice of the wealthy, but no 
devices have until now been suggested to improve 
the means of heating the dwellings of the mass of 
the people. The iron stove forms as yet the great 
and simple apparatus for warming the inhabitants 
of the million, and from its cheapness, its portability, 
and its elastic adaptability to differences of tempera- 
ture of a wide range, continued to be the great 
means of heating the homes of the people. And 
indeed, if we are to believe the graphic accounts of 
a more recent lecturer and professional engineer of 
ventilation, (L. W. Leeds, Esq.,) it must also be re- 
garded as a providential protection of the people, 



CEMENTS, ETC. 109 

that the introduction of those hot-air devices could 
not become more general. 

To correct or ameliorate the obvious defects of the 
iron stove by means at once cheap and easy appli- 
cable, is the object of the invention now brought to 
vour notice. Acknowledging the great importance 
of ventilation, it is not proposed to interfere with 
that question, which moreover cannot be considered 
settled or ripe for a popular formula when such great 
discrepancies occur in the precepts of the most in- 
defatigable investigators, and when the air in the 
halls of Congress, though renewed twelve times an 
hour, and having a purer chemical constitution than 
the air of the Alps, is nevertheless considered op- 
pressive by our national legislators. 

The defects of the iron stove are well known — 
excessive heat one hour, deficiency of such the next 
hour, burning of the air, waste of fuel, etc. Per- 
haps nowhere are these defects more apparent, more 
oppressive, and more dangerous, than in the iron 
stoves of our railroad cars. Though many improve- 
ments have been made in iron stoves, it is certainly 
a patent fact that, in a great majority of cases, espe- 
cially during the severer portions of the winter season, 
the iron stove is allowed to become red-hot until the 
heat emanating from it does become unbearable and 
dangerous, when of a sudden the stove-door is thrown 
open and draft shut. The red-hot iron, being of a 



110 

temperature about 1,000° F., decomposes or burns 
the organic particles, gas, or even animalcules, which 
float in ordinary atmospheric air, to a greater or 
lesser extent, and which are exhaled from the human 
body. Air thus acted upon must become disagree- 
able and offensive, if not positively injurious. A 
serious waste of fuel does also take place by the 
above method of heating. The air of the room, 
when the stove-door is open, is heated over the burn- 
ing fuel, and escapes through the stove-pipe without 
contributing anything to heating the room, and the 
balance of the air, heated by the low T er and hottest 
parts of the stove, follows the same line j the draft 
being shut off or checked, but a small portion of air 
finds access to the heated coal, and on account of the 
great preponderance of incandescent carbon over the 
supply of oxygen, the combustion does not take 
place by producing carbonic acid C O, but by pro- 
ducing oxide of carbon CO; a fact well established 
by chemists. This form of combustion, while con- 
suming the same amount of fuel, produces but one- 
quarter (J) of the caloric which is produced w T hen 
carbonic acid C O is formed, that is, w T hen a full 
supply of oxygen or fresh air is furnished to the 
burning fuel, as is the case with stove-door shut and 
draft open. The combustion is retarded, not as 
might be supposed, by spreading the same amount 
of caloric over a longer period of time, but by ac- 



CEMENTS, ETC. Ill 

tually reducing its measurable amount to one-quarter 
of that due to the consumed fuel when properly 
burned. Some of the oxide thus formed will find 
its way into the room, where its presence is by far 
more dangerous than a large amount of carbonic 
acid, it being a positively acting poison. 

The stove now offered for the first time, and for 
which a patent was granted to B. Oertly and X. 
Fendrich, on the 18th of August, 1888, obviates or 
remedies the above defects in toto. It will be but a 
trifle more expensive than the common iron stove ; 
will be as portable as the latter ; will require as little 
extra mechanical skill in its setting and handling, 
while it substantially has all the advantages of the 
porcelain, the soap-stone, the sand-stone, etc., stoves, 
and excels them all in the finish it is susceptible of. 

The mass of silicate and minerals, either applied 
as coating to cast-iron or wrought-iron stoves, or 
forming exclusively the body of a stove, with or 
without an iron framework embedded in it for pur- 
poses of strength, radiates heat by far more freely 
than iron, while its conductive powers to that of iron 
are in the ratio of 16 to 27. Its superior radiating 
powers over those of iron can be readily tested and 
ascertained by any ordinary thermometer. It dif- 
fuses a pleasant and sufficient heat at a temperature 
at which iron scarcely makes itself felt, except by 
immediate contact, and thus allows of a sufficiently 



11^ II YDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

rapid transmission of heat to warm an enclosed space 
without assuming itself sucli a high temperature as 
to burn or decompose any organic gases or particles 
floating in the air of any occupied room, and all of 
this while admitting the most favorable circum- 
stances for a full combustion of the fuel. Fresh air 
for ventilation can, and ought to be, introduced in 
the various manners it is now introduced in connec- 
tion with iron or porcelain stoves. The invention 
accomplishes, at less cost, all of what the most im- 
proved earthenware or soap-stone stoves of the pre- 
sent day accomplish. 

Kuhlniann, in his theoretical view on the beha- 
viour of the alkaline silicate towards the artifi- 
cial production of hydraulic lime, cements and 
silicified stones, says of the artificial hydraulic lime 
as follows: If water is mixed with slaked rich 
lime and a solution of a Potash or Soda silicate, 
the Potash or Soda are separated and the silica 
combines with the lime in place of a part of 
the water, which saturated the same and forms 
a paste, capable of disseminating in the fluid to 
all extend. This combination renders the lime 
plastic, which when exposed to heat and put into 
water, will keep clear. All particles of lime are 
so to say luted by the silica cement. This lime 
if combined with a basic silicate and exposed to 
atmospheric air, attracts, if in buildings, carbonic 



CEMENTS, ETC. 113 

acid which by degrees is converted into silicate of 
lime. 

Similar products are obtained by substituting 
aluminates of these bases to the Potash or Soda sili- 
cates. 

The Salification of the Mortar from Fat Lime. 

If walls are moistened with the solutions of the 
silicates, a reaction takes place at once to convert the 
hydrate of lime, no matter how old the same was, into 
a lime silicate, whereby a part of the Potash or Soda 
are separated ; the silicate wdiich may have been 
bound to the carbonate of lime, forms a new com- 
bination analogous to that hydraulic mortar, produced 
artificially by the moist way. If the alkaline silicate 
is in excess, the reaction on the carbonate goes on 
according to the property described. The silification 
of porous limestones is explained in this manner : 
The native carbonate of lime, if coming in contact 
with the potash or soda silicate, acts partially like 
caustic lime. Potash and soda are separated by the 
contact of the alkaline silicate, and the silica forms 
the same carbonated silicate, like that formed in the 
above manner. 

In support of this explanation must be stated, that 
the alkalis potash and soda are in all cases rendered 
caustic, and that the chalk must withdraw the last 
trace of the silica by the boiling it with the soluble 



114: HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

alkaline silicates, and invariably retaining the car- 
bonic acid in the composition. It is clear, there- 
fore, that the carbonates of lime exercise a basic 
effect in the presence of silica, which is retained 
by the potash or soda through some affinities. It 
is likewise obvious that these phenomena so indi- 
cate the invariable result of the formation of a 
hydrated silico carbonate of lime, which is capable 
of parting with its water by degrees, and to assume 
the characteristic hardness of hydraulic cements. 
The sililication of gypsum is thus explained : The 
effect of the soluble silicates on gypsum, in plaster 
of Paris, is materially different from that which the 
silicates perform on lime. In a practical point of 
view, its results are unreliable and difficult to pro- 
duce. The alkaline silicates undergo a decompo- 
sition if coming in contact with sulphate of lime, 
they form a sulphate instead of a silicate. 

It is, however, known that sulphate of soda, on 
account of its crystallization, has a tendency of de- 
stroying the porous limestones, and it is therefore 
used to test the weather-worn stones ; it is advisable 
to use a potash salt if intended for hardening 
gypsum. Another important circumstance is in the 
application of the alkaline silicates on gypsum ; 
while the effect of the alkaline silicates on porous 
lime acts favorably for the hardening of the silica 
molecule, that of those bodies on gypsum is quick, 



CEMENTS, ETC. 115 

almost instantaneous, which, when gypsum is brought 
in contact with the silica solution, produces a. raising 
or effervescing, giving great porosity to the gypsum, 
which scales off very soon, while weak silicate solu- 
tions produce more satisfactory results. For the 
purpose of possessing good results in plaster works 
it is proposed an intricate mixture of 80 parts burnt 
and pulverized gypsum, 3 parts slaked lime, 10 
parts powdered silicate in sufficient hot water. All 
must be boiling. 

Cause of the Hardexixg of Hydraulic Cement. 

In order to test the truth of the different hypothe- 
ses made concerning this subject, A. Schulatschenke, 
seeing the impossibility of separating from a mixture 
of silicates each special combination thereof, re- 
peated Fuclrs experiment, by separating the silica 
from one hundred parts of pure soluble silicate of 
potassa, and, after mixing it with fifty parts of lime, 
placing the mass under water, when it hardened 
rapidly. A similar mixture was submitted to a very 
high temperature, and in this case also a cement 
was made. As a third experiment, a similar mixture 
was heated till it was fused ; after having been 
cooled and pulverized, the fused mass did not harden 
any more under water. Hence it follows that har- 
dening does take place in cement made by the wet 
as well as the dry process, and that the so-called 



116 HYDRAULIC LIMES. 

over-burned cement is inactive, in consequence of 
its particles having suffered a physical change. 

A Strong Cement foe Iron. 

To -±-5 parts clay, (Try and powdered, 2 parts 
iron filings, 1 part manganese, -J- part salt, -J part 
borax in a paste made with soluble glass, or equal 
parts zinc white and manganese, made to a paste, 
must be used immediately. 

The Peasley Cement. 

The manufacturer of this cement has made him- 
self celebrated and wealthy by his perambulations 
throughout the United States with a span of horses 
attached to a load of hay, so it is thought advisable 
to enlighten the reader with its composition : 

AVhite glue, dissolved in a large quantity of hot 
water, also 50 parts of isinglass, and 3 parts of gum- 
arabic, and 3 parts of gum traganth, and to this 
solution an alcoholic solution of white shellac ; 1 part 
of the latter is then mixed with the watery solu- 
tion. To the whole are added 24 parts of white lead 
and 12 parts of glycerine, and 200 parts of alcohol. 
It is immediately put in bottles and well corked. 
In other words : 200 parts white glue, 24-A- parts 
lead, 12 part- glycerine, 2o<) part- alcohol, 50 parts 
i&inglass, 3 parte gum arabic, 3 parts gum traganth, 
1 part bleached shellac. 



11? 

The Silication of Fresco Painting. 

The same phenomena attending those of mortar 
take place in fresco painting. It is known that the 
colors prepared by water on the rough mortar of fat 
lime and sand are fixed by the carbonate of lime 
which envelopes them, appearing dull in many re- 
spects, of an agreeable appearance, as has been 
demonstrated in the durability of the old paintings 
of Herculaneum and Pompeii, which have been 
overthrown by rains of ashes 79 years after Christ, 
and were buried in a depth of 100 feet, By moist- 
ening with the liquid silicates the walls so painted, 
the surfaces of the rough mortar of fat lime assume 
the properties of hydraulic cement and acquire 
hardness. 

Silicate Painting by Means of a Bbush. 

The colors rubbed up with a silicate produce an 
intimate combination of the carbonated salts and 
acids, and the alkaline of the silicates are separated 
thereby. If the color is composed of a material un- 
susceptible for a chemical affinity, a silicate mass is 
formed by the action of the atmospheric carbonic 
acid, which makes an extraordinary binding cement, 
and by the separation of the alkali assumes a perfect 
insolubility in a very short time. This operation is 
accelerated if a coating of gypsum has been laid on 



118 

the lime, and- becomes more solid and intimate, 
because the alkaline and silicate acts at the same 
time on the coloring and carbonate of lime ; in 
which case it is very serviceable to moisten the wall 
before applying the colors with a weak solution of 
liquid silica, in order to prevent the too rapid with- 
drawal of the silicate and cement from the colors. 

Injection of Silicates. 

While engaged in impregnating the soluble sili- 
cates into the porous stones, and carrying this oj)era- 
tion into all organic and inorganic matter, the con- 
vincing proof was manifested that the hardening of 
those bodies are only owing to the decomposition of 
the silicates, effected by the slow action of the atmos- 
pheric carbonic acid and the gradual condensation 
of silica. This phenomena led to the observations 
that the natural silicates and aluminates, as well as 
other mineral species, were similarly formed in the 
moist way. 

This remarkable reaction of hardening porous 
bodies by silica proves, by geological observations, 
highly probable that not alone all the enveloped and 
crystallized minerals found in limestone formations, 
but also an endless variety 4 of silicated and allumi- 
nated substances found in nature, owe their exist- 
ence to analagous causes; that the flints, agates, and 
petrified wood cannot have any other origin, but that 



CEMENTS, ETC. 119 

they are formed by the slow decomposition of a sili- 
cated alkali from the carbonic acid, either atmos- 
pheric or generated during the process. 

This fact is of the highest interest in the chemico- 
physical investigations, and is the key to the investi- 
gations of the formation of the natural silicates, even 
under many various circumstances, of the conden- 
sation of silica by other bodies than the carbonic 
acid ; many experiments undertaken have proved 
the gradual decomposition as already stated, and in 
a great variety, of the formation of such as opal, 
quartz, and others depending, likewise of the state 
of concentration of the original decomposed ma- 
terials. The iridescence of the opal, which disap- 
pears if exposed long to dry atmosphere, but revives 
if moistened in water or sweet oil, gives a beautiful 
example. Many important facts have come to light 
by the investigations made on hydraulic limes and 
artificial stones, which prove that a considerable 
quantity of potash is contained in the natural 
hydraulic and other cements ; the origin of which 
is attributed to the decomposition of the alkaline 
silicates by the lime, and this may be proved by the 
formation of saltpeter or nitrate of potash in the 
efflorescenses of walls and earths in caves, called an 
eremacausis of substances which contain nitrogen, 
and form, therefore, ammonia, and in contact with 
porous substances undergo an oxidation and conver- 



120 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

sion into nitric acid, and at once is combined with 
the alkalies contained in the native lime occurring 
in the older formations, and was separated, under 
certain circumstances, from the alkaline silicates 
found in those limestones, nitrate of potash the 
result. In general terms, nitre, or nitrate of potash, 
which is found in crusts on the surface of the earth, 
on walls and rocks, and in caves, is found in 
there localities abundantly -in certain soils of Spain, 
Egypt, Persia, and E. Indies, especially in hot 
weather succeeding rains, it is also manufactured 
from soils where other nitrates (nitrate of lime or 
nitrate of soda) form in a similar manner, and beds 
called nitraries are arranged for this purpose in 
many countries. Refuse animal matter also, putri- 
fied in calcareous soils, gives rise to nitrate of lime, 
as we find it so frequently in cow and horse stables, 
and is then converted into nitrate of potash ; old 
plaster walls, when lixiviated, afford about 5 f of 
nitre. It is known that nitre requires for its forma- 
tion dry air and long periods without rain ; the 
potash comes mainly from the debris of felspathic 
and lime rocks in the soil, or in the cements, if they 
have been used for building walls, and the oxidation 
of the nitrogen of the air is promoted by organic 
matters, hence the nitre is generally associated with 
azotized decomposed organic substances. A nitre 
crust from the vicinity of Constantine, Algeria, 



121 

afforded Boussingault &5f nitrate of potash, with 
some nitrates of lime, soda and magnesia. In the 
Mammoth cave of Kentucky, where the nitre is 
found scattered through the loose earth in great 
abundance, and was utilized during the war of 1812, 
also in the Mississippi Valley, in Missouri, many 
caves have yielded the nitre which was of great use 
to the secessionists of the late war, when Tennessee, 
along the limestone slopes and in the gorges of the 
Cumberland table land, produced a large amount of 
saltpeter. 

The nitrate of soda, formed in a similar manner 
like that of nitrate of potash, but more particularly 
found in the dry pampas of Chili, where it is found 
at a height of 3,300 feet above the sea, and contains 
beds of several feet in thickness, along with gypsum, 
common salt, glauber salt, and the remains of recent 
shells, indicating the former presence of the sea. 

Kuhlman has proved by his investigations that 
the larger number of limestones from various geo- 
logical periods contain both potash and soda, deriving 
their existence from various plants growing in a cal- 
careous soil, and has also shown the development of 
the efflorescense of the carbonates of potash, chlor- 
ides of potassium and sodiums, which make their 
appearance on the surface of walls from their con- 
struction, to which he was led by the fact that the 
alkaline salts in general are obtained in larger quan- 



122 HYDRAULIC LIMESTONE, 

tities from hydraulic limes than from the lixiviation 
of air limes, and that the hydraulic limes contain 
mostly more alkali, and that it exerts much influ- 
ence upon the quality of lime, and it has been ascer- 
tained by Vicat that the occurrence of the potash 
and soda is neither accidental nor less influential 
upon the proportion of the hydraulic limes. It is 
presumed that the silica-ted limestone, and any fat 
lime mixed with clay by the influence of potash or 
soda are during the burning converted into double 
compounds, analagous to the natural silicates, which 
are known under the name of zeolites, such as meso- 
type, stilbite, apophyllite, etc., which all form hy- 
drates, and lose their water of crystallization by 
burning, and absorb it again on moistening ; one of 
the species of that class of mineral, such as the 
laumonite which, when exposed for sometime to the 
atmosphere, effloresces and crumbles to pieces to the 
chagrin of the mineral collectors, but it is sufficient 
to confirm the remark just made regarding their con- 
stitution and similarity of the artificial silicates of 
lime and alumina. It is apparent that, in the hard- 
ening of hydraulic lime a process takes place anala- 
gous to that of gypsum when hardening, and forming 
a hydrate. It may, however, be possible that the 
hydraulic limes be still formed without the presence 
of potash or soda, and that the silicium or aluminium 
in contact with lime fills the same office in possessing 



CEMENTS, ETC. 123 

the property of binding the water, and to convert 
them in certain conditions to a hydrate. Respect- 
ing the cement which is formed by the moist way, 
it is a fact that when chalk is brought in contact 
with solutions of alkaline silicates, an exchange of 
the acids of both salts takes place, one part of the 
chalk is converted into silicate of lime and the cor- 
corresponding quantity of potash in carbonate of 
potash : this explains the true artificial stone which 
has become, on exposure to the atmosphere so 
hard, that, if the mixture contains a sufficient quan- 
tity of a silicate, possesses the property to adhere 
firmly to such bodies where it has been applied, the 
materials so formed with the silicate of potash or 
soda are analagous to cements without burning, 
and may be used for restoring monuments, etc. In 
the salification of artificial stones the affinity of 
lime to the silica contained in the soluble glass is 
manifest, and shows the effect of the alkaline sili- 
cates on limestones ; and how the influence of the 
atmosphere in the hardening of silicates or artificial 
limes is brought to bear through the atmospheric 
carbonic acid by the separation of one part of silica 
in the silicates, and how the other parts of the sili- 
cate, when in close contact with a sufficient quantity 
of carbonate of lime, a lime silicate is formed. 

This acquired knowledge has produced numerous 
applications in industry, it has proved that, by arti- 



124 

ficial impregnation of mineral substances into the 
interior of porous substances organic as well as inor- 
ganic matters are preserved, or silicified. The sili- 
fication of a fine sandstone is easily effected by 
the mixture of 1 part of liquid silica and 2 parts of 
fine sand, with the addition of a small quantity of 
chalk and white clay, all of which are wrought into 
a paste and then formed into desired objects and ex- 
posed to the atmosphere for some time, and the 
finishing process continued by means of hydraulic 
pressure and heating in hot chambers, the particulars 
of which have been indicated in a former chapter. 
It has been ascertained that always if any salt in- 
soluble in water is brought in contact with the solu- 
tion of a salt which forms with the acid of the base 
of the insoluble salt, a less soluble substance, an 
exchange takes place, which, although but partial 
sometimes, produces the formation of double salts. 
This discovery led to a direct application that white 
lead, chromate of lead, chromate of lime, and the 
majority of the carbonated metallic salts are suitable 
for silicification. 



THE SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE, 

Stereo-Chromic. 

The use of the brush in the application of colors 
has so far been but .partially accomplished. The 
substitution of the potash or soda silicate for the 
fixed and volatile oils with mineral colors has at 
first been attempted by trituration of white lead 
with the liquid silicate. It has been found that a 
transformation of the white lead takes place the 
moment they come in contact together, which is so 
rapid that no time is allowed to transfer the paint 
into the brush. In order to make this paint more 
suitable, and to prevent a kind of decomposition, it 
was found advisable to add a large portion of the 
sulphate of baryta, artificially prepared, as this paint 
operates but slowly on the silicate solution. 

It appears that this baryta may be used with more 
advantage by itself, as it unites perfectly with the 
silica and appears to form a chemical compound, but 
a disadvantage presents itself in forming but a half 
transparent color, which does not cover well, and the 
addition of oxide of zinc is therefore recommended, 
which agrees well with the paint in connection with 
baryta and silica ; this application has produced very 



126 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

satisfactory results, forming a cheap white paint, 
which can be easily transferred with a brush. 

Many mineral colors, mixed with white bases, pro- 
duce such difficulties on account of their drying too 
quick, others too slowly, according to the behavior 
of the bases to the soluble glass. Many combina- 
tions retain the alkali obstinately, and it was at- 
tended with many difficulties to apply the colors 
with the liquid silica, yellow r ochre, blue and green 
ultramarine, sulphuret of cadium, manganese per- 
oxide the oxide of chrome have proved to unite 
w T ell with the silica. 

The painting on stone is much easier when silica 
has been used on the stone than on that where it was 
not applied, for the reason that the absorbing quality 
of the silica, serving a binding material, withdraws 
it from the color, and it is therefore very advisable 
to apply several times the liquid and exposing to the 
atmosphere before applying the paint. A single silifi- 
cation of the wall is indispensable on the painted 
coloring, which is done by preparing, as usual, with 
the liquid silica, as other paints are treated. The 
soda silicate used for painting on walls is easily 
effected by the use of the syringe. The painting on 
walls is attended with some difficulty likewise, for 
while that on stone remains unaltered, the wood is 
apt to shrink, or to crack, and many woods will not 
easily take the paint, and even change their physical 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 127 

appearance, becoming darker ; oakwood assumes the 
appearance of an old wood, and only the white and 
hard woods, such as the ash and maple woods, will 
take up the silicate painting. Another difficulty 
takes place in painting on wood, that it peels off, if 
applied too thickly. A weak solution of 1 part 
silica, of 28° B to 5 parts water, either alone or 
combined with other bodies, is recommended. 

For protecting shingles against rot, or rendering 
them incombustible, 4-5 applications, during an 
interval of a day each, may be made, and another 
method is to season them, first by steam, then soak- 
ing them in green vitriol solution, and then impreg- 
nating with silica, quite hot, and at last to throw 
fine sifted sand upon them. Wooden stables, and 
other buildings exposed to vapors or great change of 
temperature, three or four coatings of the silica solu- 
tion is recommended. 

Further Remarks on Stereo-chromic. 

This new art of painting derives its name from 
two Greek words (rrepeocr^ fast, or permanent, and 
from XP 00 ^, the color, and has been introduced 
as a substitute for fresco painting, and bids fair to be 
very extensively applied, and more than the en- 
caustic painting, from the fact that the works exe- 
cuted by this art have given great satisfaction ; the 
inner halls of the new museum at Berlin have been 



128 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

painted by Kaulbach with panels 21 feet high and 
24J feet broad, and are said to equal the oil paint- 
ings in freshness and vigor, and with that particular 
advantage that the paintings may be viewed or ex- 
amined from a certain stand to do so, and that it 
may be applied on many grounds without the rough 
mortar being first used. An experiment was made 
to expose a painting for one year to the atmospheric 
air, to the sun, fog, snow and rains, and retaining 
during the whole time its freshness. An important 
circumstance, however, is the formation of the 
groundwork, for any neglect in that of the lower 
and upper ground materially affects the beauty of 
the painting. In order to produce .a uniform strong 
firmness, it is necessary to supply the soluble glass 
uniformly, so that it may be absorbed perfectly and 
uniformly. 

The walls must be well cleansed in the first in- 
stance when the mortar is laid on, and then a weak 
solution of the liquid glass is passed over it and left 
to dry. Clean washed sand or limey sand is then 
mixed with a very small quantity of burnt lime, and 
made to a paste and laid on the wall. The surface 
i> made even by an instrument, and the upper layer 
removed which was formed on coming in contact 
with the air ; 'out the mass must be always kept 
moist during the whole operation. This rough mor- 
ter will soon become dry, and may be rubbed off 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 129 

with the fingers, but it must not be left too long ex- 
posed to the air for fear of its attracting the carbonic 
acid, whereby the lime would be too much carbon- 
ized. 

By the application of a solution of carbonate of 
ammonia a considerable hard consistency is produced, 
when the liquid may now be applied several times 
with a brush, but always at intervals, and enough 
to penetrate into the morter, and the liquid glass 
ought to be that made from soda, and quite clear, 
that liquid soluble glass which was used at the 
Munich Theatre consisted of silica 23-21, soda 8- 
20, and potash 2-52, and had a specific gravity of 
1,381, and was then diluted by an equal quantity of 
water. In all cases, the liquid must be laid on by 
means of a brush, in order to produce a uniform im- 
pregnation of the same. When this groundwork, 
called the underground, is faithfully and carefully 
prepared, the upper groundwork which is to receive 
the painting may be commenced with ; it does not 
differ much from the first operation. 

The sand to be used must be of fine grain, and 
well washed, as also the quartz, etc., (the lime sand,) 
which is obtained from marble or dolomite, finely 
powdered, are to be used to the thickness of one 
line quite evenly, in order to obtain the necessary 
roughness on the surface indispensable to the process 
of painting. It may, perhaps, be necessary to use 



130 SILICATE PAINTING ON STtfNE. 

other substances before the application of the fine 
sand, in order to destroy any lime crust which might 
have been formed in the preparation of underground, 
and diluted phosphoric acid is now recommended to 
be applied with a sponge or brush on its surface, for 
it forms then a phosphate of lime with the soluble 
glass, which binds well and does not injure the 
mortar. The ground so prepared, and well dried, is 
now impregnated with the liquid glass, the same as 
the first, and diluted also with equal quantities of 
water, which is done twice, allowing sufficient time 
to dry between each impregnation. 

Wood may be painted by covering it first with a 
chalk ground, which must be thick enough to allow 
a polishing with pumice : to chalk, glue, or a little 
silicate solution may be added, as a binding material. 
Another difficulty occurs after the first has been 
overcome, in the oozing out of the carbonate of 
potash in damp weather until the whole salt has 
been expelled, and many experiments have failed, 
and hydrochlorate of ammonia was first proposed in 
a weak solution, and an absolute insolubility of the 
color was thereby obtained, but chlorate of potash 
remained in this operation, which destroys the gloss 
of the colors if not at once removed by repeated 
washing ; forced to resort to those few chemical 
agents, apt to fix the potash, which should enter as 
insoluble combinations in the color without destroy- 



SIMCATE PAINTING ON STONE. 131 

ing them ; the perchloric and hydrofluoric acids were 
resorted to. It is well known that by washing with 
hydrofluoric acid the density of the colors is much 
increased, and it was thought therefore safe to use it, 
particularly in painting on glass, but only as a very 
weak solution. Hydrofluoric acid possesses the most 
remarkable property to dissolve most oxides when in 
a concentrated state. The application of the weak 
solution of hydrofluoric acid, either for fixing the 
potash in painting and in silification of limestone, 
was mainly calculated for such case where a silicate 
has been used with an excess of potash, and in hard- 
ening of soft and porous limestones by a partial con- 
version into a lime silicate it was found very expe- 
dient for fixing the potash, and making sure the in- 
solubility to moisten, at first with a weak, and then 
strong solution of the hydrofluoric acid, the stones 
when the potash oozed out; the acid, however, pene- 
trated the stone and produces an insoluble com- 
pound, in other words, it fixes the soluble potash, 
and produces an insoluble compound. Through this- 
discovery hydrofluoric acid was found a very useful 
application in the fluosilicated lime. 

If brought in contact with lime, hydrofluoric acid 
is capable of dissolving it considerably without pro- 
ducing an immediate precipitate of calcium, or a 
separation of the silica, but at a certain state of satu- 
ration any addition of lime decomposes entirely the 



132 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

hydrofluoric acid, and so much that not a trace 
of these bodies can be discovered in the fluid ; the 
same results are obtained by the carbonate of lime, 
instead of the caustic lime, and that silicium and 
fluor are produced in the limestone, which hardens 
but slowly, and it is therefore simply a fluorsilication 
that produces the hardening of the lime. The effect 
of the hydrofluoric acid on gypsum is also produced 
in a cold mixing of both, when the surface of the 
gypsum is considerably hardened. If, however, the 
acid is used in excess, the gypsum is covered with 
raised postules, which owe their existence to the for- 
mation of bisulphate of lime, because sulphuric acid 
does not act as well as the carbonic acid in the 
treatment of limestone; a fluorcalcium, mixed with 
soluble glass, may be used as a paint, or paste, or a 
cement, or any coating of other substances, and be- 
comes so hard and weatherproof that neither soda 
nor potash will detach from the combination and 
remain dry. 

Painting on Metals, Glass and Porcelain. 

Silica painting adheres strongly on metals, pro- 
vided care is taken to keep the substances some time 
from the contact with water. The most durable 
paint is produced on zinc, also on porcelain and 
glass, the colors assume a semi-transparency if 
painted on gla-s, and no doubt afford much induce- 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 133 

ment for its use. The sulphate of baryta, artificially 
prepared, combined with potash silicate, applecl to 
glass, makes a milky white appearance, and is very 
beautiful, as it incorporates very intimately with the 
silica, so that after the lapse of a few days the paint 
cannot be removed even with warm water. If this 
glass is exposed to high heat (6° Wedgewood) a fine 
white enamel is formed on the surface, which will 
compare well with the oxyde of tin, and is much 
cheaper. Ultramarine, oxide of chrome, if con- 
verted into enamels, form a prolific source for the 
new art of painting. It is not quite necessary that 
a chemical combination should be produced in all 
these colors, if they only adhere strongly and pro- 
duce the silicated cement which has become hard by 
its fine division and easy admission of air. 

Emery, bloodstone, and peroxide of manganese, if 
finely powdered and prepared with a concentrated 
solution of soluble glass, produce cements of extra- 
ordinary hardness, resisting the effect of heat com- 
pletely, and become perfectly insoluble in water. 

For the production of an indestructible ink, soluble 
glass has been used and obtained by mixing finely 
burnt lampblack with the liquid soluble glass. Bra- 
connofs ink is prepared by decomposing leather in 
caustic potash and adding to the black mass the 
liquid soluble glass. A decoction of cochineal 
mixed with the liquid soluble glass produces a red 



134 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

ink, resisting completely the action of chlorine and 
all other acids. 

The alkaline salts, particularly the carbonates and 
chlorides, produce, when added to liquid silica, a 
gelatinous pasty precipitate, the chloride of am- 
monium with developing the ammonia ; precipitates 
are also formed with the earthy alkaline salts, and 
from alumina and hydrate of lime, for in all these 
cases of precipitations a part of potash is withdrawn 
from the soluble glass, which either forms a part of 
the precipitate or remains free, or attaches itself to 
the acid of the added salt. 

The same case takes place in the application of 
the salts of the heavy metals, such as iron, copper, 
etc. The effect of the soluble glass on salts, either 
insoluble or soluble with difficulty in water, such as 
sulphate of potash and carbonate of lead, phosphate 
of alumina, gypsum, etc., all of which become, when 
rubbed up with the silica solution and exposed to 
the air, a very hard mass. 

The fixation of potash with silica painting on lime 
shows how the colors, after an exposure to air for 
some time, become quite insoluble in water, and is 
thus explained : The contact of carbonate of lime 
with the soluble glass determines always the decom- 
position of the first, and conversion in silicate of 
lime, which retains the coloring matter. If the 
colors are transferred on substances not acting upon 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 135 

the soluble silicates like wood, iron, glass, etc., then 
it becomes necessary to find the conditions of the 
insolubility in the reaction of the coloring matter in 
the silicate itself. 

Much precaution has to be used not to close the 
pores of the underground, whereby the success of 
the painting is jeopardised, in case a mistake should 
haye occurred before, and by waiting some time be- 
fore proceeding farther, to allow the contraction of 
the liquid glass, so as to open again the pores, and 
which can also be accelerated by heat that is pro- 
duced by burning alcohol over the groundwork. 
Now, after this operation of drying and preparing 
is performed, and the liquid glass applied uniformly, 
so that every paint is found uniform so as to begin 
the painting, the artist will have no difficulty to 
begin at the proper work. The colors are now per- 
fectly rubbed up with the water and put on artisti- 
cally after the wall has been syringed with pure 
water — for two reasons : one is to expel the air from 
the pores, and then to promote the adhesion of the 
colors ; this, however, must be done moderately, or 
the colors might otherwise suffer in freshness ; the 
moistening must be effected on every spot which has 
to be painted. The colors are now prepared with 
the liquid glass, diluted with one-half of its water, 
which must be applied by means of a syringe, and 
not by a brush, and with much care, for the reason 



136 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

that these colors adhere but thinly, and, if applied 
with the least force, would put the colors from their 
place, or would make them flow together ; the opera- 
tion of syringing over, the painting must be repeated 
several times after having become dry, until the 
colors appear to be so fast that, touching with the 
fingers, they will not be stained. Many colors re- 
quire more or less of the liquid glass, which may be 
learnt by practice, but which may easily be detected. 

When the painting is finished, an application of 
alcohol, after the lapse of a few days, will materially 
add to fasten the painting and to clear it from any 
impurities which may have attached themselves, or 
by the alkali which might have been separated from 
the liquid glass and have oozed out, and may be 
worked with mortar free from lime, and it may thus, 
without any hesitation, be left exposed. 

It may be observed that the painting must be 
guarded against rains during the time of the rub- 
bing up and laying on of the colors. After the ex- 
posure of some months, or a year at latest, it is 
well to examine the painting, in order to ascertain 
whether the colors have not suffered from rhe con- 
densation of the liquid glass, so as to produce an 
interruption of the binding or fastening of the colors, 
so that it may become necessary to apply an ad- 
ditional fixation. 

The materials for the upper ground, which is to 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 137 

take up the colors, may be also composed of the fol- 
lowing : Pulverized marble, dolomite, slaked lime, 
and fine quartz, or a sand with the liquid glass com- 
bined ; the proportion of the liquid glass depends 
upon the sand which is used in the mixture, so as to 
form the consistency of mortar. The advantages of 
this ground work are : it prevents the separation of 
the lime on the surface after a frequent moistening 
with water, and, therefore, no lime crust forming, no 
rubbing off is required before the application of the 
liquid glass; furthermore, the liquid glass comes in 
immediate contact with the under ground, producing 
thereby a good cement with both grounds. This 
mortar becomes as hard as stone after being dry, 
and shows its porosity in warm and dry air, which 
make it very susceptible for absorption. 

Stereochromic for Easel Painting. 

The basis for this class of painting may be made 
from plates of burnt, porous clay ; it is first im- 
pregnated sufficiently with liquid soda glass. These 
plates may be f of an inch thick ; after one or two 
applications they become as hard as any stone ware ; 
they are very suitable for painting ground. The 
lithographic stone makes a good base for easel paint- 
ing ; a thin coating of liquid glass mortar will pro- 
duce a good base, and it may be first moistened with 



138 SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 

phosphoric acid, which assists much to absorb the 
colors with the liquid glass and to make them fast. 

The colors to be used for this class of painting 
ought hot to be chosen which decomposes the liquid 
glass, such as contain strong acids, nor those from 
organic substances. Burnt oxides are better than 
raw oxides, vermillion becomes brown, and at last 
black ; cobalt blue becomes clearer by the liquid, 
and the yellow ochre becomes darker. 

All colors ought to be properly prepared to make 
them fit for the silica painting, such as the great 
variety of oxides, many of which, not containing 
much oxide of iron, may be suitable, also chrome red, 
ultramarine, umber, baryta white, cadmium yellow, 
and many more, purposely made by some chemists, 
not containing free acid, which enter into a decom- 
posing chemical combination. 

The permanent white, or artificial sulphate of 
baryta, is said to be the proper material for a white 
paint. It is obtained from the native minerals, 
heavy spar or sulphate of baryta, and witherite or 
carbonate of baryta. The manufacture of the new 
paint is effected by the reduction of the native sul- 
phate to a chloride of barium, or dissolving the 
native witherite in hydrochloric acid, and then ad- 
ding either sulphuric acid or glaubersalt, the arti- 
ficial sulphate of baryta is found in a condition of 
extreme fineness and purity, possessing a fine lustre, 



SILICATE PAINTING ON STONE. 139 

and susceptible for producing a line white paint, 
which is the bast substitute for white lead and zinc 
white, is not subject to tarnish or become brown in 
parlors like white lead, which is attacked by hydro- 
sulphuric acid, and forms, when combined with the 
liquid glass, a slow but intimate combination, and is 
likewise used under the name of blancfix for card- 
makers, paper-stainers and paper collar manufacturers 
to a very large extent. It may also be considered in 
point of importance, if compared with that of 
white lead, not having a dilatory effect upon health 
as the latter. If mixed with the soluble glass it obvi- 
ates the odious smell of linseed oil and spirits of tur- 
pentine. If it is mixed with dexterine, starch, or other 
binding material in connection with the liquid sili- 
cate of soda, its applications may be multiplied to 
any extent. 

The artificial sulphate of baryta is largely manu- 
factured on the continent of Europe ; in the U. S. it 
has so far been manufactured in New York by a few 
chemical establishments for card makers, but not yet 
for the purpose of substituting it to white lead. 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD 

A Protection against Combustion, Inflammabil- 
ity and Dry Rot. 

Wood, and all other organic combustible substances, 
may to a great extent be preserved against that great 
element, the fire, by the proper application of the 
liquid silicates. Still it requires much skill, expe- 
rience, and proper management to subdue totally 
this wonderful element when brought to its full 
power. There are many instances on record to prove 
either a full, or at least partial success in arresting 
the progress of a conflagration by the impregnation 
or coating of combustible bodies with many sub- 
stances, such as possess incombustibility, whether 
liquids, gases, or materials which possess the proper- 
ties of generating gases that will withdraw or suffo- 
cate the surrounding atmosphere, such as the oxygen 
gas, and thereby arrest the progress of the flames. 
Many chemical agents have been from time to time 
proposed to effect this object ; such as salt, chloride 
of lime, and latterly carbonic acid in its gaseous 
form, and many metallic salts have proved but a par- 



SILIFICATKW OF WOOD. 14:1 

tial success in the prevention of decay or dry rot of 
wood. The soluble glass is one of the first materials 
which have been successfully employed in arresting 
conflagration, and as far as 1823 this material was 
recommended in the construction of the Munich 
Theatre, where -165,000 square feet of timber surface 
were treated with a coating of the liquid soluble 
glass, and in 1830,-31 and ? 32 the author performed 
many experiments in the Brooklyn Navy Yard, par- 
tially as a protecting agent against lire, as also 
against decay of the woody fibre ; small square 
blocks of wood, after having been impregnated with 
the soluble glass and sailcloth, writing paper, parch- 
ment, etc., were exposed for some time to the flame 
of a gas lamp. After the lapse of an hour, all these 
substances were found to be charred, but not con- 
sumed. It is proved- that the liquid soluble glass 
produces a perfect adhering, permanent covering 
which, when properly laid on. suffers no damage 
from the atmosphere. For coating the wood, etc., a 
pure solution of the liquid glass is required, other- 
wise it will peel off, and it is best not to use it first 
in a concentrated state, as it will not be able to pene- 
trate into the pores, whereby the atmosphere must 
be expelled, and even five or six applications may be 
made in intervals of twenty four hours. Although this 
process renders good services, it may be improved by 
the addition of other pulverized substances, wherein 



142 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

the soluble glass acts as the binding material, the coat- 
ing assumes a better body, is stronger and more per- 
manent, and if exposed to the fire a crust is formed 
such, for instance, are bone dust, clay and chalk 
mixed together, a lead glass, etc. ; common clay -^ 
was successfully used w^ith the liquid glass in the 
Munich Theatre. If applied on linen or other 
organic textures, the mere coating, or dipping, is not 
sufficient, but a surface between rollers must be re- 
sorted to in order to produce a full absorption with 
the pores ; these stuffs may then be rolled up, but 
not folded. 

Building timber, rail road sleepers, and other sim- 
ilar materials, have been treated in the manner just 
described, and were protected fully against fire and 
dry rot. 

The author proposed a combination of the liquid 
glass with the following substances, intended as de- 
composing agents by chemical affinity, and pro- 
ducing in the cells of the vegetable fibre the various 
mineral and metallic salts which are altogether in- 
soluble in water, alkalies and acids, and he extended 
his experiments on the uses of lime, chalk, gypsum, 
copperas, etc. His process of treating ship timber, 
sleepers, cross-ties, roofing shingles, and other wood 
blocks was the following : 

1. The materials to be treated were put in steam- 
boilers and exposed for four hours to a pressure of 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 143 

hot steam, (or 300° F) then withdrawn from the ket- 
tles and dried. Alkalies and acids, such as hydro- 
chloric, have been since recommended for the purpose 
of abstracting color and albumen existing in the cells 
of the woody fibres, which, however, is accomplished 
by steaming. 

2. In a solution of silicate of soda while hot, the 
materials to be treated are thrown and kept there for 
twenty-four hours, which will- give ample time for 
the woods to enter into the open cells while hot. 

3. A large vat, containing either lime water, solu- 
tion of copperas, or blue vitriol, white vitriol or 
gypsum, finely powdered and thrown into hot water, 
or finely powdered chalk of I lb. to 10 gallons of 
water : the proportion of metallic salts is but J ft. 
to the gallon of water. The woods are kept in the 
vats for another day, and then taken out dried and 
ready for use. 

Coal tar, and the other products of dry distilla- 
tion from tar and peat, have been recommended by 
Krieg as far back as 1858, under the name of Kreo- 
sote-carbolic acid, which was then considered a 
waste product, and in its raw state having a spec, 
grav. of 1.02 to 1.058, and yielded from 20 to 30 % 
of the tar, it was well known to possess the property 
of protecting wood against decay. 

This chemist combined with the impregnation of 
woods, etc., the soluble glass that of the kreosote car- 



lJrJr SILIFICATIOX OF WOOD. 

bolic acid for the reason that the latter precipitates 
the soluble silica as an insoluble substance while it is 
soluble in an alkaline lye. He proposed to expose 
the woods for f of an hour to a temperature of 300° 
F., and then drying them thoroughly. 

The woods thus prepared showed an increased 
weight of 6 %, and a lacquered surface, while in the 
inside the pores were filled with an insoluble precipi- 
tated silica. 

For effecting a still more perfect success is to fix 
the kreosot on the woody fibre from the alkaline so- 
lution, by the diluted sulphuric acid or by a solution 
of copperas (sulphate of iron,) whereby the sulphate of 
soda thus obtained may either be washed out, or oozed 
out, and the creosot-carbolic acid combines stronger 
with the woody fibre, and the impregnated woods 
may be considered safely protected against fire or 
rot. 

This process just described, deseryes the serious 
attention of the various companies established for 
the last fiye years in the preservation of wood by 
carbolic acid, tar, etc., by combining the soluble 
glass with their process, as we haye described. 

Since the introduction of railroads, not quite 50 
years, many men haye been engaged in chemical 
experiments upon the cross ties and sleepers, which 
after being laid down for a few years undergo the 
decay or rot and haye to be renewed, which causes 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 145 

great expenses v to the companies. Kyan, Burnett, 
Boucherie and many other chemists in all coun- 
tries where this evil existed, proposed remedies ; 
the sublimate, chloride of zinc, pyrolignite of iron, 
all had their advantages and disadvantages; of 
late borax, alum, rosin, carbolic acid have been in- 
troduced and many articles have been written on 
the subject. 

Preservation of Wood, in Damp and Wet Places. 

In 1846, 80,000 sleepers of the most perishable 
woods, impregnated, By Boucherie's process, with 
sulphate of copper, were laid down on French rail- 
ways : after nine years exposure, they were found as 
perfect as when laid. We would suggest washing 
out the sap with water, which would not coagulate 
its albumen": the solution would appropriately fol- 
low. Both of the last named processes are compara- 
tively cheap ; it costs less than creosoting, but one 
shilling per sleeper. The unpleasant odor of creosote 
is greatly against its use for lumber for dwellings ; 
pyrolignite of iron is offensive, and also highly in- 
flammable; the affinity of the chlorides for water 
keeps the structure into which they are introduced, 
wet, and they also corrode the iron-work. Sulphate 
of copper is free from these objections, and is cheaper 
than the chlorides, and seems preferable for protect- 
ing wooden structures against dry rot in damp situa- 



146 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

tions, like mines, vaults, and the basements of build- 
ings. 

The surface of all timber exposed to alternations of 
wetness and dryness gradually wastes away, becoming 
dark colored or black. This is really a slow combus- 
tion, but is commonly called wet rot, or simply rot. 
Other conditions being the same, the most dense and 
resinous woods longest resist decomposition. Hence 
the superior durability of the heart wood, in which 
the pores have been partly filled with lignin, over 
open sapwood ; and of dense oak and lignumvitee over 
light popular and willow. Density and resinousness 
exclude water ; therefore our preservatives should in- 
crease those qualities in the timber. Fixed oils fill up 
the pores and increase the density ; the essential oils 
resinify, and furnish an impermeable coating; but 
pitch or dead oil possesses advantages over all known 
substances for the protection of wood against changes 
of humidity. According to Professor Letheby 
(" Civil Engineers' Journal,*' vol. 33), dead oil, 1st, 
coagulates albuminous substances; 2d, absorbs and 
appropriates the oxygen in the pores, and so protects 
from eremacausis ; 3d, resinifies in the pores of the 
wood, and thus shuts out both air and moisture; and 
4th, acts as a poison to lower forms of animal and 
vegetable life, and so protects the wood from all para- 
sities. These properties specially fit it for impregnat- 
ing timber exposed to alternations of wet and dry 



SILIFICATIOJST OF WOOD. 147 

states, as, indeed, some of them do for situations con- 
stantly damp and wet. Dead oil is distilled from coal 
tar, of which it constitutes about 30 $? cent, and boils 
between 300° to 470° Fahr. Its antiseptic quality re- 
sides in the creosote it contains. One of the compon- 
ents of the latter, carbolic acid, (phenic acid, phenol) 
C 12 H 6 O 2 , the most powerful antiseptic known, is able 
at once to arrest the decay of every kind of organic 
matter. Professor Letheby estimates this acid at one 
half to six per cent, of the oil. Bethell's process sub- 
jects the timber and dead oil, enclosed in large iron 
tanks, to a pressure varying from one hundred to two 
hundred pounds per square inch, about twelve hours: 
from eight to twelve pounds of oil are thus injected 
into each cubic foot of wood. Lumber thus prepared 
is not affected by exposure to air and water, and re- 
quires no painting. Four pence the cubic foot is 
estimated as the probable expense of this process. 

Though we have not to guard against decay, when 
timber is constantly wet in salt water, the Toredo- 
navalis, a mollusk of the family Tubicolaria (Lam.) 
soon reduces to ruin any unprotected submarine con- 
struction of common woods. None of our native 
timbers are exempt from these inroads. The toledo 
never porforates below the surface of the sea-bottom, 
and probably does this little injury below low-water 
mark ; its food is the borings of the wood. Poisoning 
the timber does not protect from the toledo, the con- 



148 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

stant motion of sea- water soon diluting and washing 
away the small quantity of soluble poison with which 
the wood has been injeted. Thorough creosoting 
the wood, with ten pounds of dead oil per cubic foot, 
is a complete protection against the toledo. 

Drying Timber by Steam. 

Mr. Yiolitter has lately presented to the Academy 
of Sciences in Paris, a very able communication on 
the desiccation or drying of different kinds of wood 
by steam. He states that steam raised to 482°, Fah- 
renheit, is capable of taking up a considerable quan- 
tity of water ; and acting upon this knowledge, he 
submitted different kinds of oak, elm, pine, and wal- 
nut, about eight inches long and half an inch square, 
to a current of steam at seven and a half pounds pres- 
sure to the square inch, but which was afterwards 
raised to 482°. The wood was exposed thus for two 
hours. It was weighed before it was exposed to the 
steam, and afterward put into close-stoppered bottles 
until cool, when the samples were again weighed, 
and showed a considerable loss of weight, the loss of 
which increased with the increase of the temperature 
of the steam. For elm and oak the decrease in weight 
was one-half, ash and walnut two-fifths, and pine 
one-third. The woods underwent a change of color 
as the heat was rising from 395° to 442° ; the walnut 
became very dark, showing a kind of tar formed in 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 149 

■ the wood by the process, which was found to have a 
preserving effect on the wood. 

It was found that wood thus heated became stronger, 
having an increase in the power of resisting fracture. 
The maximum heat for producing the best fracture- 
resisting power for elm was between 302 and 347°, 
and between 257 and 303 degrees for the oak, walnut, 
and pine. The oak was increased in strength five- 
ninths, walnut one-half, two-fifths for pine, and more 
than one-fifth for elm. These are but preliminary 
experiments, which may lead to very important re- 
sults, and are, therefore, interesting to architects 
especially. By this process the fibres of the wood 
are drawm closer together, and maple and pine 
treated in the steam, at a temperature of 487°, were 
rendered far more valuable for musical instruments 
than by any other process heretofore knowm. This 
is valuable information to all musical instrument 
makers. Who knows but this is a discovery of the 
Venetian fiddle-makers' great secret. 

Wooden Roof Shingles. 

One of the most valuable applications of the soluble 
glass may be recommended for shingles and wooden 
roofs of farmhouses in the country and near railroads, 
where the sparks of the locomotives have frequently 
caused deflagrations and destruction of property. 

The operation is quite simple and the expense but 



150 SIL1FICATI0N OF WOOD. 

trifling ; the process lias already been described, but 
it may be still more simplified in the following man- 
ner : 

After the steaming of the shingles in boilers or in 
tanks, where steam of 250 to 350° is led into them ; 
they are dried and thrown into aweak solution of liquid 
silica, standing about 25 Q B, in which they are left 
for 24 hours, when they are taken out and exposed 
to the air. Before they are quite dry, a weak solu- 
tion of chloride of calcium is thrown over them or 
sprinkled over them with a broom. When quite 
dry they are fit for use. They will not burn nor be 
ignited with the sparks ; if exposed to a direct fire, 
will not ligrht in a surrounding fire. An intense heat 
of long duration may char them on the surface ; they 
are, however, quite safe from any inflamation. 

The Preservation of Wood by Immersion. 

The processes for the preservation of wood may be 
divided into three groups, namely : processes by 
immersion ; processes by pressure in closed vessels, 
(which are exclusively employed for dry wood,) and 
processes founded on the displacement of the sap 
(which are only employed for green wood.) In the 
present article we shall describe the methods by im- 
mersion. 

Attempts to impregnate wood by the method of 
immersion were the first experiments undertaken. 
As early as 1740, Fagol, a Frenchman, tried to im- 



SILIFICATIOX OF WOOD. 151 

pregnate wood with alum, sulphate of iron, and 
various other substances, in solutions of which he im- 
mersed it for several day. In 1756, Haller recom- 
mended vegetable oil for the same purpose. In 
1767, Jackson indicated the use of a solution of sea 
sale, to which sulphate of iron and magnesia, alum, 
lime, and potassa were to be added. In 1779, Pallas 
proposed to mineralize wood by dipping it first in a 
solution of green copperas and afterward in milk of 
lime. In 1830, Kyan in England, tried to preserve 
wood by simply immersing it in a solution containing 
two per cent of bichloride of mercury. Xot long 
since, experiments were made in France and Ger- 
many with a large number of railroad ties, by keep- 
ing them several hours in a solution containing 1.5 
per cent, of sulphate of copper, at a temperature of 
160° Fahr. This preparation is, however, altogether 
insufficient for the preservation of fir or pine wood, 
and in general for light woods which contain a large 
amount of nitrogenous substances ; but it seems to 
increase considerably the durability of oak. The 
wood is thus surrounded by a very thin coating, 
which is not liable to decay nor to the attacks of 
insects, and which retards the alteration of the inner 
parts. These are, however, not impregnated at all 
by the anticseptic liquid ; they preserve their germ& 
of putrefaction, which develop the easier the more 
the injected surface is removed, whether by friction 



152 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

blows, or the driving in of nails. The decay com- 
mences then at the denuded points, and propogates 
itself toward the central parts. 

Baron Champty also indicated a method for pre- 
serving wood, by dipping it when green into suet of 
200° Fahr. The water and the gases which are in- 
closed in the vegetable tissue escape, and by the con- 
densation which follows upon cooling, a vacuum is 
produced, into which, by the pressure of the atmo- 
sphere, the suet is made to penetrate. Mr. Pay en 
made use of this experience, substituting for the suet, 
rosin, heated to 300° Fahr., and in this manner in- 
troduced into a small poplar tree three-fifths of its 
weight of rosin. 

Decay of AVood and Processes foe Preserving it. 

According to the experiments wdiich were made by 
De Saussure, in the beginning of this century, it 
would seem that the decay of woody fibre was ex- 
clusively caused by the action of air and water. On 
exposing moist wood to the action of oxygen gas, he 
found that, for every volume of oxygen absorbed by 
the wood, one volume of carbonic acid was disen- 
gaged. It is now conceded that it is the hydrogen of 
the fibre which is oxidized at the expense of the 
oxygen of the atmosphere, while the carbonic acid 
is solely formed from the elements of the wood, or 
that the process is simply a separation of a portion of 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 153 

the carbon of the wood by direct oxidation ; and it 
would seem, from the experiment mentioned, that 
the first and only cause of the decay of vegetable 
tissue must be ascribed to the affinity of oxygen for 
the elements of the latter. 

Such cases of slow decomposition have indeed also 
been distinguished by the name eremaeaasis, a term 
composed of two Greek words, and meaning to burn 
by degrees. 

The above explanation, however, scarcely holds 
. good in all cases, it is now known that, in dry air, 
woody fibre may be preserved without decaying for 
thousands of yc^ars; and, under water, in certain con- 
ditions, it appears to be equally durable. One must, 
therefore, look for some other cause to explain the 
transformation of woody fibre. Such a one presents 
itself in the fact that, when wood is exposed for some 
weeks to running water, or if it is boiled in water and 
afterward dried until the original weight is restored, 
it is rendered therby considerably more durable. 

The cause of the transformation in question must, 
therefore, be sought in a substance which is removed 
by the dissolving action of water in the experiment 
mentioned. By further investigation, this substance 
is found to consist of the albumen of the sap, which 
is distributed throughout the cellular tissue. Like 
the animal albumen, as the white of eggs, which it 
closely resembles both in properties and composition, 



154- SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

the vegetable albumen is exceedingly liable to decom- 
position. In this state, it acts like a ferment, induc- 
ing the decay of other bodies, according to the phy- 
sical law propounded in another application by Lap- 
lace and Berthollet, namely, that a molecule set in 
motion by any power can impart its own motion to 
another molecule with which it may come in con- 
tact. 

Among the bodies most prone to decomposition is 
the sugary element, which is first dissolved. Then 
the growth of fungi generally begins, and the putre- 
faction proceeds step by step. It may, therefore, be 
considered that the spontaneous decomposition of 
the vegetable albumen is the primary cause of the 
decay of wood. It is, indeed, found that those kinds 
of wood which contain the smallest quantity of albu- 
minous matter and amylum are the most durable. 
Especially is this the case with a certain tree of the 
acacia tribe, the locust, and the cedar, which resist 
decomposition in situations where all other kinds of 
wood soon decay. 

In order, then, to find out whether a certain kind 
of wood is especially fitted for building purposes, 
the quantity of albumen present in the fibre should 
be ascertained by analysis. M. Payen recommends, 
for this purpose, to digest the wood in a dilute solu- 
tion of caustic alkali — this soda, or potassa — which 
has no action on the woody fibre, but only dissolves 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 155 

the albumen. Hence, the quantity of the latter may 
be estimated by washing, drying, and weighing the 
wood after the experiment has been made. 

Methods of Preserving Wood. 

If the primary cause of the decay of woody fibre 
be its contact with putrefying albumen, a means of 
preserving is naturally suggested in the removal of 
the albumen ; or else in so combining it with other 
substances that it forms a compound which is insol- 
uble in water, and not susceptible to spontaneous 
decomposition. It would seem that the solubility of 
the albumen in cold and tepid water would afford a 
simple means of withdrawing this element of decom- 
position, and thus of preserving timber ; but this pro- 
cess, though effectual, is by far too slow to be practi- 
cable. 

The most ancient method of guarding wood against 
decay consists in the application of an external coat- 
ing of oils and resins or a hot solution of silicate of 
soda, according to the author of this treatise in 
connection with that of chloride of calcium and 
carbolic acid. If the wood is dry, and otherwise 
in a sound state, and also not exposed to abra- 
sion, a perfect protection may be afforded in this 
way. A more effectual mode of preserving it, how- 
ever, consists in its immersion in a hot solution of the 
respective preservative. This may either serve 



156 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

simply for filling the pores, or for forming a com- 
pound with the albuminous matters, which has the 
property of not being decomposed. Both ends may 
be arrived at by one and the same substance. 

Impregnation of Wood by Pressure. 

This method was not practiced to any great extent 
previous to the close of the last century. In the in- 
quiry into the means which have been taken to pre- 
serve the British navy, particularly from dry rot, a 
volume has been produced, which affords a splendid 
account of all that had been done up to that time in 
the direction of wood preservation. The author 
gives a full account of the action of about forty sub- 
stances, among which may be mentioned, solutions 
of sulphate of copper, sulphate of iron, alum, borax, 
lime, corrosive sublimate, and other forms of mercury, 
preparations of zinc and iron, sea-salt, creosote, lin- 
seed-oil, coal and wood tar, and wax. As it is how- 
ever, not the intention of these articles to do dwell 
upon things of the past, but upon things of the pre- 
sent, the writer may pass to the description of some 
modern processes. 

The apparatus now used in France for the satura- 
tion of timber with preservative agents is described 
as follows : It consists of a cast-iron cylinder, which 
is connected by means of a tube with a condenser. 
Both are placed in a vertical position. The opera- 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 157 

tion is began by introducing the timber into the cast- 
iron cylinder, together with the preservative material. 
The latter, however, is not altogether to rise to the 
entire height of the stem. The receptacle of the 
wood is hereupon closed, and connected with the 
condenser. A vacuum is then produced in the latter, 
which is accomplished by introducing alternate steam 
and sprays of water into it. After this the stop-cock 
of the tube connecting the two cylinders is opened, 
when the air passes from the receptacle into the con- 
denser. This operation is repeated, until the pres- 
sure in the cylinder is less than fifteen decimetres. 
The same is kept up for several minutes, in order to 
let the air of the timber have time to escape. The 
connection between the receptacle and the condenser 
is finally closed. A pump is then set in motion, by 
means of which the preservative agent is made to 
penetrate the pores of the vegetable tissue, until the 
pressure stands at that of ten atmospheres. This is 
maintained for various lengths of time, according to 
the nature of the wood and the liquid, but six hours 
are generally sufficient. After this the air is gradually 
allowed to enter, while the preservative liquor is left 
to run away. 

For the relative claims of wood and metal as ma- 
terials for rails, many facts ought to be considered ; 
wood is exempt from the inconveniences, dangers 
and expenses incidental to contraction and expansion 

7 



15 S SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

under variations of atmospheric temperature. Metal 
at an extreme low point fractures, and most lamen- 
table casualties result ; while under the fervid heat 
of 90 to 170°, the expansion of iron is so great as to 
displace the work on which the rails repose, and thus 
render the whole fabric unsteady and unsafe. 

From the Report on Wooden Railways the follow- 
ing extract is made : — " The length of the experi- 
mental line laid down near Vauxhall bridge was 174 
yards, with gradients of 1 in 95, 1 in 22, and 1 in 9, 
and a curve of 720 feet radius. The speed attain- 
able on so short a line was of course limited ; but the 
power given to the engineer by the bite of the wheel 
on the wood (for the line was laid with wooden rails) 
enabled him to drive at the rate of twenty-four miles 
an hour, and to stop the carriage in a distance of 
twenty -four yards. In the presence of several engi- 
neers the carriage, laden with passengers, ascended an 
incline of 1 in 9, the rails being in a very bad state 
at the time from damp weather. 

" Since the introduction of wood paving, it maybe 
calculated that a saving of one-half has been effected 
in the wear and tear of carriages, horses, and harness 
in those districts where it has been adopted ; a saving 
equally great can be made in the construction of 
railroads by the substitution of wood for iron rails. 
The rails may be made of beech or other hard Eng- 
lish timber, six or eight inches square, let into wooden 



SALIFICATION OF WOOD. 159 

sleepers, and secured by wooden wedges, forming one 
great frame, or wooden grating of longitudinal and 
cross sleepers. 

" An engine weighing ten tons running on wood 
will have more tractive power than one weighing 
eighteen tons running on iron ; and as the concussion 
and abrasion on wood is so trifling, carriages built to 
weigh one and a half tons will be as strong as those 
having to run on iron weighing three tons. An im- 
portant question connected with this subject is the 
durability of the material of which the rails are com- 
posed. The engine employed for the experiment 
weighed about six tons ; it passed over the rails dur- 
ing the two months it ran 8,000 times in every 
variety of weather, which is equal to nearly seven 
years traffic of twelve engines per day. The rails 
consisted of Scotch fir, about nine feet long and six 
inches square ; and yet, upon examining them after 
the severe test to which they had been subjected, they 
exhibited no appearance of wear from the friction of 
the wheels on the upper surface, as the saw marks 
were not effaced. 

" The capability of wood to sustain the strain to 
which it must necessarily be exposed, especially when 
moving over it at high velocities, has been satisfac- 
torily proved by the experience of the Great Western 
and other railways, where continuous longitudinal 
sleepers of wood have been employed, and experience 



160 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

has shown that the solidity of the road is much 
greater than when the iron rails were attached either 
to stone locks or transverse wooden sleepers. In 
proof that wooden rails cut from beech will bear the 
wear and tear of trains passing over it, it is well known 
that beech cogs have proven to last eighteen to 
twenty years when working in gear with an iron 
wheel. The rails on the Yauxhall line were pre- 
pared by Payne's patented process for preventing 
dry-rot and decay of timber. Scotch fir, if subjected 
to pressure, will crush at ten tons, while beech (the 
wood recommended for railways) will bear a pressure 
of eighty-two tons before it begins to yield. 

" Experience having confirmed the capability of 
Scotch fir to withstand the traffic of twelve engines 
per day for seven years, without any visible wear, it 
would be difficult to say how long the rails cut from 
beech, sustaining eighty-two tons pressure, would 
last. Some of the impediments with which railroads 
have to contend are the undulations of the country r 
and the necessity of diverging from a right line in 
order to obtain the traffic of important towns. These 
obstacles can only be overcome by an outlay of capi- 
tal, in making the required excavations and embank- 
ments, or by the oftentimes ruinous system of tun- 
nelling, and after all, inclines of greater or less gra- 
dients are unavoidable, and prevent the line working 
economically. Curves on iron railroads are highly 



SILmCATIOX OF WOOD. 161 

prejudicial, especially if the radius be small, as the* 
wear and tear becomes proportionably increased. 

" Now, by the introduction of the proposed plan, the 
evils arising from the obstacles alluded to would be 
very materially diminished ; for, in the first place, 
the surface resistance obtained by the elastic char- 
acter of wooden rails, enables a train to be propelled 
up inclines with much greater facility and ease than 
on rails constructed of iron. The advantages of 
wooden railways thus constructed, in point of 
economy, comfort, durability, and as feeders to the 
great and central lines already formed, must be ap- 
parent to every one who has given the subject any 
consideration. 

" The result of a series of experiments, made to 
ascertain the proportionate power of the bite of wood 
over iron, has fully borne out the assertion of the 
patentee, that the bite of the driving-wheel on wood 
is nearly double that on iron. On the surface of an 
iron wheel four feet in diameter, a lever eight feet 
long was placed, with a weight of seven pounds at- 
tached to the lever, three feet from the centre of the 
axis of the wheel ; the surface of the lever being iron 
at the tangent of the wheel, it required a weight of 
twenty-eight pounds attached to the crank to make 
it revolve. On substituting a wood surface for the 
iron one; it required a weight of forty-two pounds. 
Another experimant confirmed the result with the 



162 VILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

iron surface ; a weight of twenty-eight pounds at- 
tached to the spoke of the wheel, at a distance of six 
and three-quarter inches from the centre, made it re- 
volve ; whilst with a wooden surface, it required the 
same weight to be attached to the spoke at a distance 
of eleven and a half inches from its centre, thus 
clearly demonstrating the power obtained by the 
bite of the wood is nearly double the bite of iron. 

" Mr. J. M. Mason, (of Trent notoriety) when in 
England, devoted some attention to Prosser's system 
of wooden rails, with a view to their use in the South- 
ern States during the war, and in a letter to Mr. C. 
J. Bloomfield, he writes, ' I was most strongly im- 
pressed with their feasibility and durability? " 

Timber Rot and Seasoning. 

It is generally supposed that the rotting of timber 
is merely induced by th'F action of the oxygen of the 
air. From analysis made of sound and. decayed oak, 
it has been shown that for every two equivalents of 
hydrogen oxidized by the air, one equivalent of car- 
bonic acid had separated. It may therefore be in- 
ferred that the decay or rot of timber does not arise 
from fermentation ; but is rather a chemical process. 
Others admit that microscopical parasities of vege- 
table nature play an important part in the decay of 
wood ; but consider the presence of albuminious 
matter in the sap as necessary , which, according to 



SALIFICATION OF WOOD. 163 

-them, must also be first in a state of decomposition 
before it allows the growth of those organisms. In 
order to throw light upon this most important sub- 
ject, we propose first to tabulate a number of well- 
observed facts. Sound timber, when immersed in 
water, without access of air, will withstand decay for 
almost an unlimited time. This is proved by the 
piles upon which the dwellings on the Canaries rest, 
which were erected in the time of the Conquest in 
1402, they being just as sound now as if they had 
been freshly felled. Roots of trees that have been 
submerged in marshes are rarely found decomposed. 
This is stated to be the case with the utensils dis- 
covered in the lake dwellings of Switzerland, Bavaria, 
and Lornbardy, which must be at least ten thousand 
years old. Hartig also describes a cypress-stem with 
over three thousand rings, representing the same 
number of years, which, though submerged, had only 
partially turned into brown coal. 

With respect to the action of the atmospheric air, it 
may be asserted that the same, even when moist, will 
not produce rot, if the wood has been well steamed, 
or exposed to the action of running water for a suffi- 
cient length of time. In England it is customary to 
lay the timber destined for threshing-floors and 
wainscoating in fresh water for several weeks. When 
again dry and not exposed to damp, such timber will 
endure for an incredible period of time. 



164 



SILTFICATION OF WOOD. 



This tends to demonstrate tlie fact that the sub-, 
stance which induces decay must be foreign to the 
timber itself. This substance is the juice that is 
chiefly contained in the vascular tissue, which forms 
a link between the bark and the wood. The compo- 
sition of this sap varies according to circumstances, 
as the variety of the tree, climate, season-, ground, 
etc. The following are analyses of the sap : 



In 100 Parts. 



si z 






Albumen, 

Dextrin, 

Sugar, 

Resin, 

Galactin, 

Myricin, 

Antiarin, 

Organic Substance (not determined),. . 10 

Potassa with Organic Acid, 0.87 

Carbonate of Lime, 0.10 

Extractive Matter and Salts, 

Water, 98^93 

" 100.00 " 

(a) Gluten and Albumen, according to Solly, {b) Dextrin and 
Salt, (c) Water and Butyric Acid. 

Remarks.— "The Cow Tree (Galactodendrort) is a native of the 
Cordilleras of Venzuela ; it famishes, by incision, an enormous 
quantity of a white, thick liquid, which has the taste and some of 
the qualities of real cow's milk. The Antiaris to.vicaria belongs 
to tbe same family as the former— namely, to the nettle-worts, and 
it is singular that it furnishes a most deadly poison, which has 
been the subject of the most harrowing stories. (Jussieu ; Elements 
of Botany.) 




SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 165 

- Unfortunately we possess only one analysis of a 
tree indigenous to North America ; however, the 
same tends to show that the amount of albumen, if 
the non-determined organic matter must be con- 
sidered as such, is exceedingly small, and with re- 
spect to the other trees, these analysis prove that the 
albumen does not constitute the chief part among the 
ingredients of the juice. How unjustifiable it is, 
therefore, to attribute, in every instance, the decay of 
timber to the albumen present in the sap, as if it was 
the only substance liable to spontaneous decomposi- 
tion, or affording the vegetation of fungi and lichens ! 
How unfounded is the assertion of Mr. Joseph B. 
Lyman, who, in an article on the preserv ation of tim- 
ber, states that "wood is mainly made up of woody 
fibre and a substance full of nitrogen " ! (vide Work- 
ing Farmer, November 1st, 1868.) 

In regard to the amount of sap and air contained 
in the oak aiad poplar, we possess the following data 
from Count Rumford : 

Wood. Sap. Air. 

Oak 0.39353 0.36122 0.24525 

Poplar 0.24289 0.21880 0.53831 

The German botanist, Schacht, in all instances of 

. decayed timber, has met with fungi and lichens. 

The destruction of timber by decay, after the same 

has been hewn, must, therefore, be considered as 

being produced by similar causes which brought on 

the disease of the vine, potato, mulberry trees, and 



166 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

Other cultivated plants, which make the years 1845, 
'48, '53, '57, and others forever painful to the 
memory. 

That the juice should be in a state of decomposition 
before being capable of generating those organisms 
seems doubtful, since this has not been found the case 
in other and well-studied modes of fermentation. The 
morel, a species of mushroom, will also attack per- 
fectly sound wood. Hand in hand with the spread of 
the fungi continues the decomposition of the ligneous 
tissue. Access to moisture and air, as also a certain 
degree of heat, are necessary. In regard to the air, 
fungi require oxygen for their generation. When 
air-dried, steamed, or chemically treated and after- 
ward dried wood commences to rot, it is a sign that 
moisture has again penetrated ; for it is scarcely to be 
admitted that in all these cases the sap had been en- 
tirely removed. Timber decomposes the easier the 
more sap it contains, and if green trees are hewn 
when the vessels are overflowing with juice, one may 
look with certainty for diminished durability of the 
timber. Timber is not always the more durable the 
more dense it is, but rather when the even iineness of 
the grain continues to the pith of the stem. 

The Roman historian, Pliny, considers the resini- 
ferous woods as the most durable. Indeed, nature 
shows that this is frequently the case. The resinifer- 
ous red and white pines of Oregon and California are 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 167 

considered first-class ship timber, so much so that 
entire vessels have been constructed from the denser 
qualities. The yellow or long-leaved pine, in dry- 
situations, is extremely durable, and is preferred to 
oak of any kind where a lighter yet solid wood is re- 
quired. The white or northern pine, which grows 
abundantly in every northern State of the Union, 
from Maine to Minnesota, reaching often to an alti- 
tude of one hundred and eighty feet, with a diameter 
of six feet or more, is said to retain its properties as 
long as the very best description of oak. 

The fact that dried timber is, for nearly every pur- 
pose, far superior to green, has led to its being dried 
in the open air, or in confined rooms by means of 
heated air, or mixtures of air and steam. The first 
method is termed seasoning. jSTewly felled wood, in 
order that it may season properly, should be pro- 
tected from rain, sun, and strong winds. It should 
be piled up so that a circulation of air can take place 
from beneath. 

The shed in which the timber is dried should be 
paved and provided with sewers. Moreover, the re- 
lative position of the pieces of timber should be 
changed from time to time during the seasoning 
process. The necessary time for seasoning varies from 
two to four years. 

The proportion in which the woody fibre and 
water are to each other is very different. It 



ItiS SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

varies according to the degree of dryness and the 
nature of the wood itself. According to Schiibler 
and Neuffer, we have for newly felled woods the fol- 
lowing table : 

WOOD. WATER. 

Hornbeam 18.6 per cent. 

Willow 26.0 

Sycamore 27.0 " 

Ash • 28.7 

Birch ' 30.8 

Oak.... 34.7 

Pedich Oak.~. 35.4 

White Fir 37.1 

Pine 39.7 

Red Beech 39.7 

Alder 41.6* 

Asp 43.7 

Elm 44.5 

Red Fir 45.2 

Lime Tree 47.1 " 

Italian Poplar 48.2 

Larch 48.6 

White Poplar 50.6 

Black Poplar " 51.8 

The amount of water in wood, after one year's dry- 
ing in the air, ranges from 20 to 25 per cent., and 
when perfectly air-dry, as it is called, it still holds 
from ten to fifteen per cent. 

¥ The specific weight of newly felled timber ranges 
from 0.85 to 1.05; that of air-dried timber from 0.45 
to 0.75. The weight of one cubic foot of newly cut 



SILIFICATIOX OF WOOD. 169 

native timber would thus range from fifty to sixty - 
five pounds, while that of seasoned wood would vary 
from twenty-eight to forty-seven pounds. The total 
expulsion of moisture by means of air-drying, accord- 
ing to the experiments of Rum ford, takes place only 
at 280° Fahrenheit. But even if thus completely 
dried, and then exposed again to the atmosphere, it 
absorbs nearly five per cent, of water during the first 
three days, and continues to absorb until it contains 
from fourteen to sixteen per cent., after which it 
becomes very hygroscopic, losing or absorbing water 
according to the state of the atmosphere. Indeed, it 
appears that this property is never entirely removed. 
According to the author of an article on " Wood " in 
Appletorts Dictionary of Mechanics, some bog oak, 
supposed to have been buried on the island of Sheppy 
not less than a thousand years, was dried for a good 
many months, and then used for the manufacture of 
furniture. When divided into the small pieces re- 
quired for the work, it was still found to shrink. 
With regard to the shrinkage after one year's season- 
ing, it ranges from five to twenty per cent., and after 
a seasoning of four years from thirteen to thirty-two 
per cent. 

W. W. Bates, of Chicago, 111., contributes the fol- 
lowing data upon the shrinkage of green North Caro- 
lina live oak, cut at different seasons of the year, in 
the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture for 



170 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

the year 1866. The shrinkage after one year's sea- 
soning was as follows : 

Loss of weight in summer-cut logs, in bark. . .5 per cent. 
Loss of weight in winter-cut logs, in bark. . . .6 

Difference in favor of summer-cut logs. . . 1 per cent. 
Loss of weight in summer-cut squared timber. 5 per cent. 
Loss of weight in winter-cut squared timber .5 " 



Difference per cent. 

Thc3 shrinkage after four year's seasoning gave: 

Loss of weight in summer-cut logs, in bark. . .23 per cent. 
Loss of weight in winter-cut logs, in bark .... 27 



Difference in favor of summer-cut logs. ... 4 per cent. 
Loss of weight in summer-cut squared timber. 23 per cent. 
Loss of weight in winter-cut squared timber. .22 " 



Difference in favor of winter cut timber. . . 1 per cent. 

The drying of lumber in confined rooms by means 
of hot air, or steam and air alternately, is now r largely 
practiced, and the more on account of the economy 
of the method than on account of its yielding a supe- 
rior product. In some cases, the wood, before being 
exposed to artificial heat, is subjected to a longi- 
tudinal pressure, in order to rupture the cells in 
which the moisture is confined, to the end that it 
may escape more freely upon the application of heat. 
It is claimed that the wood is thus rendered more 



SILIFIOATION OF WOOD. 171 

valuable for nearly all the purposes for which it is 
used, but ^particularly for the hubs, spokes, and 
panels of carriages, etc. — Dr. Ott, in JEng. <& Min, 
Journal. 

PRESERVING WOOD. ROBBINGS PROCESS. 

The preservation of wood constitutes one of the 
most important questions with which applied chemis- 
try has to deal. It has been ascertained by careful 
statistics that the wooden structures alone on the 
farms of this country cost over one hundred millions 
of dollars every year while the sleepers on the rail- 
ways cost twenty -five millions during the same period 
of time. If the duration of all this wood could be 
doubled, it would save the country twelve and a half 
millions every year in railroad ties, and fifty millions 
in fence and farm buildings. At the same time, our 
woodlands are being cut down with fearful rapidity. 
This fact assumes great importance when we reflect 
that there exists a most intimate relation between the 
climate of a country and the extent of its forests. 
This becomes at once evident when it is known that 
the springs of rivers do not issue from subterranean 
reservoirs, but consist chiefly of collections of atmo- 
spheric precipitates, rain, dew, and snow, which have 
percolated from higher levels. .Rainless regions are 
always deficient in woodland, and there are innumer- 
able instances where vast and fertile tracks of land 



172 SALIFICATION OF WOOD. 

have been changed into barren and unhealthy desserts, 
simply because they have been stripped of their 
forests. Therefore, in lengthening the duration of 
wooden structures, we, at the same time, prevent the 
destruction of our forests, thus leaving to the coming 
generations the same resources which we have in- 
herited from our forefathers. , 

We now propose to examine the process of 
Mr. Louis S. Robbins, which was patented in 
1865, and purchased a year later by the u National 
Patent Wood -Preserving Company" of New- York. 
It goes also under the name of the " oleagin- 
ous vapor process," and has been described in the 
daily and weekly press, under the title, " Discovery of 
one of the Lost Arts of the Egyptians." The process 
may be briefly described as follows : The wood to be 
treated is placed in an iron chamber, which is con- 
nected with a still containing coal-tar. To the latter 
heat is applied, until the contents have reached the 
temperature of 600° Fahr. The inventor not only 
claims that the thus impregnated wood will be com- 
pletely protected against the moisture of the atmo- 
sphere, but also that it is rendered " nearly as inde- 
structible as granite." In order to comprehend this 
process, it is necessary that we should examine the 
nature of the products which are given off in heating 
coal-tar, and the changes which they produce on 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 173 

entering the pores of the woody fibre. Coal-tar con- 
sists, as is well known, of a number of substances- 
acid, basic and neutral ; of the latter, some are liquid, 
some solid. In subjecting tar to distillation, the first 
products given off are ammonia and probably also 
permanent gases ; then water is evolved, together 
with various ammoniacal substances, and a brownish 
oil of a noxious smell and of less specific gravity than 
water. The latter is associated with the so-called 
light oils, the portion in which they are contained 
being generally gathered separately in tar distille- 
ries. They amount to from five to ten per cent, and 
when the temperature has reached 320° Fahr., it 
may be concluded that they have passed over. The 
oils distilling at a later stage contain large quantities 
of naphthalin and paranaphthalin, both solid hydrocar- 
bons, of which the first appears at about 400° Fahr. 
They are often present in such quantities that the 
condensed distillate assumes the consistency of butter. 
Carbolic or phenic acid is given off a little earlier, but 
the giving off of naphthalized oils continues up to 
55(P Fahr., when a resinous, yellowish product ap- 
pears, which can be easily kneaded between the fin- 
gers. The remainder is the black, pitchy mass, used 
in the construction of Nicholson's pavement. 

Among the various substances here enumerated, 
the phenic acid alone is that to which any preserva- 
tive properties can be ascribed. It has been deter- 



174 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

mined that tar from cannel coal contains seven per 
cent., that of Staffordshire coal four and a half, and 
tar from Newcastle coal two and a half per cent, of 
this acid. The average quantity of phenie acid in 
coal-tar would therefore be less than five per cent ; 
moreover, it is never found in the free state, but al- 
ways in combination with bases, whereby its effi- 
ciency is greatly impaired. Again, being soluble in 
fresh and salt water, it is easily and rapidly washed 
out, finally leaving the wood as completely liable to 
decay, as well as to destruction by insects, as it was 
before treatment. These facts are sufficient to justify 
us in drawing the conclusion that the vapors of coal- 
tar are not efficient preservatives. 

This fact was, indeed, particularly reported upon 
by the Dutch Government Engineers. (See Dingler's 
Polytechnic Journal?) They discovered that after 
thirteen months' exposure, piles which bad been cre- 
osotized under Mr. Bethel's special superintendence 
were found so completely free from the impregnating 
material that the teredo navalis had eaten up and 
destroyed these to a thickness of one inch and a quar- 
ter. The same fact was also reported by Mr. Steven- 
son, the famous English engineer, in the case of the 
piles and wood-work on the Woolwich side of the 
Thames. The dead oil had been completely washed 
out, and the destruction of the wood by decay and by 
worms was proceeding at such a rate that Mr. Steven- 



SIHFICATION OF WOOD. 175 

son expected to see the piles totally destroyed before 
the expiration of three years from the time when they 
had been impregnated. 

Again, for many very important purposes this pro- 
cess is inapplicable, on account of the intolerably 
offensive smell of the dead oil and other products of 
the dry distillation of bituminous substances. 

In a pamphlet before us, it is stated that there is 
no record in the books of any thing like this process 
having ever been known to the world prior to its dis- 
covery by Mr. L. S. Bobbins. It is claimed to be as 
new as was the sewing-machine or the telegraph. 
We presume that Mr. Bobbins did not know of the 
process patented by FrantzMoll, in England, in 1835,, 
which is as follows : The wood is placed in a close 
chamber, which is connected with one or more stills. 
The operation of impregnating is begun by heating 
the inside of the chamber by a steam pipe to a tem- 
perature sufficiently high to maintain the vapors con- 
taining the phenic acid in a vaporized state. But be- 
fore these are introduced, the watery vapor from the 
damp timber is allowed to escape, after which heat is 
applied to the still containing the light hydrocarbon 
oils, or the " eupion," as the mixture w r as named by 
Moll. When it is thought that the timber has been 
sufficiently impregnated with these vapors, the surplus 
is drawn off, and vapors from another still, containing 
the heavy oils, are admitted into the chamber. 



170 STLIFIOATION OF WOOD. 

Finally boiling liquid creosote is introduced into the 
chamber by a pipe, in a quantity sufficient to cover 
all the wood therein. It will be seen that this process 
is substantially that of L. S. Robbins, but was re- 
commended, in 1858, by Dr. Krieg, in connection 
with soluble glass, for the preservation of all wood- 
work against fire and rot. — From the Manufacturer 
and Builder* Julu^ 1S69. 

Wooden Roof Shingles. 

One of the most valuable applications of the solu- 
ble glass may 'be recommended for shingles and 
wooden roofs of Farm-houses in the country, and 
near rail roads, where the sparks of the locomotives 
have frequently caused deflagrations and destruction 
of property. 

The operation is quite simple and the expense but 
trifling; the process has already been described, but 
it may be still more simplified in the following 
manner : 

After the steaming of the shingles in boilers or in 
tanks where steam of 300 to 350^ is led into them for 
feeveral hours they are dried and thrown into a weak 
solution of liquid silica, standing about 25° B. from 
which they are taken out and exposed to the air, before 
fehey are quite dry, a weak solution of chloride of cal- 
cium is thrown over them or sprinkled over them with 
a broom, when quite dry they are fit for use. They 



SILIFICATIOX OF WOOD. 177 

will not burn, nor be lighted by the sparks, if 
exposed to a direct lire, will not light in a surround- 
ing fire. An intense heat of long duration may char 
them on the surface, they are however quite safe 
against any inflamation, 

Street Pavements. 

As a rule, competent engineers express doubts as 
to the merits of the Nicolson, and of wooden pave- 
ments of all patterns. 

In the Xicolson structure the road-bed is of sharp, 
clean sand, of the proper thickness. A basis is then 
made by laying common boards, dipped in hot coal-tar, 
lengthwise on stringers of like material, laid from 
curb to curb. The blocks forming the superstructure* 
are of Southern hard pine, three by four, and are set 
on end in rows, crosswise of the street — the blocks 
before setting being dipped to half their length in a 
bath of coal-tar. Between the rows of blocks inter- 
vene pickets of thin board set on edge and leaving an 
opening between the rows of blocks, of a foot or 
nearly in depth. This opening is rilled with clean 
screened gravel rammed down with a paver's ham- 
mer, and an iron blade made for the purpose, and the 
surface is covered with hot coal tar. The gutter ex- 
hibits its lowest point half a foot from the curb. The 
whole surface is covered with coal-tar sufficiently 
boiled to be tough and fibrous, but not brittle, upon 



178 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

which is sprinkled a layer of tine gravel and common 
sand. The Stafford pavement differs from the ISficol- 
son in the laving of large blocks prepared after the 
Seely patent, resting upon stringers, which in their 
turn may be supported by any specified road-bed. 
Provided the road-bed is sufficiently secure, say of 
strong concrete, and the upper deposit is made suffi- 
ciently complete, the Stafford pavement cannot but 
compare favorably with other wooden pavements, 
and, for simplicity, is quite superior to the Nicolson. 
The Stafford pavement appears at the present mo- 
ment to be the favorite one in the city of Xew York, 
as a large contract is now carried out for the upper 
part of the city. 

Both obviate certain objections in surface w r ay which 
pertain to the Belgian, in the wear and tear of 
vehicles and horses, and the noise or reverberation of 
wheels ; but both are inferior to the asphaltic road in 
these respects, while the asphaltic has one great 
superiority valuable as preventive of accident — to wit, 
the beating of the hoof of the horse is rendered very 
audible — audible above all other sounds — so as to be 
measurable by the ear in the matter of distance. 
This latter advantage can only be estimated by per- 
sons who have taken occasion to note the extent to 
which one falls into the habit of measuring the dis- 
tance of a vehicle from any given crossing, by the 
ear; and one of the main liabilities to accident, oc- 



179 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

curring from wooden pavements, is the muffling or 
comparative muffling of the hoof-beat. In this re- 
spect, in fact, any form of concrete pavement possesses 
material advantages over either the stone block, 
which exaggerates the rumble of wheels and obscures 
the hoof-beat, or the wooden pavement, which re- 
duces both in about equal proportions. In a word, a 
grave objection to the Nieolson pavement is the fact 
that in just one respect it is a trifle too noiseless for 
the safety of pedestrians in crossing, especially in 
these days when every driver seems to be possessed 
with the devil to run over some body. Again, in case 
of extensive conflagration in any part of the city, the 
wooden pavement might prove a dangerous ally by 
ignition, an instance of which has recently occurred 
in Philadelphia. Neither of the wooden pavements, 
above named command the unqualified admiration of 
practical engineers as yet, though the test of use is 
the measure of merit in these matters, and neither 
has been in use here sufficiently long to warrant the 
expression of an opinion. 

The Parisian system has, since 1854, manifested 
strong preference for the asphalt road upon the con- 
crete foundation. In 185-1, nine hundred and sixty 
square yards of asphalt road were laid in Paris, and 
since then the use of the material has steadily in- 
creased, until at present it is ranked as well adapted 
for purposes of heavy traffic on the most frequented 



1S<> SILIFIOATION OF WOOD. 

thoroughfares. Up to 1866, 96,000 square yards had 
been put down ; in 1867 the surface added was 
54,000 in Paris proper, and 84,000 in all in the de- 
partment of the Seine, making a total in thirteen 
years of 180,000 square yards. The contract of the 
Cie Generate des Asphaltes with the city of Paris 
covered at that date at least 96,000 square yards 
more, to be put down in 1868 and 1869. The ancient 
streets of Paris were without sidewalks, and were 
paved with large square blocks, with grades sloping 
from the sides to the middle, forming a gutter on the 
central line. Sidewalks began to appear in 1825, and 
in the same year the reversal of the surface, bringing 
the gutter to the sides, was introduced. In 1852 the 
system of MacAdam was applied to the old boule- 
vards, and in 1858 this method was improved for 
heavy traffic by introducing margins along the sides, 
from two to four yards in width, paved with small 
blocks of Belgian porphyry — the germ of the side- 
walk as now used. The whole surface of streets and 
sidew r alks is now T constituted as follows : 

SQUARB METRES. 

Streets— paved 4,833,643 

Macadamized 2,146,005 

Of Asphalt 165,164 

Total 7,195,302 

Sidewalks— of granite 545,939 

Paved 14,024 

Bituminous 1,192,414 

Total 1,752,377 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. .181 

Grand total 8,947,679 

Equivalent in square yards to 10,701,416 

The relative cost of the tliree as constructed is 
worthy of attention, and may be added, together with 
the annual cost of repairs, to the square yard. The 
generalization exhibits the following figures : 

COST PEE 8Q. YD. ANNUAL EEPAIB. 

Asphaltic road $2 50 25 

Belgian porphyry pavement. . . 3 00 to 3 67 08^ to 25 
Macadamized 1 17 42 to 50 

The first cost of asphalt streets is greater than 
that of macadamized, while the cost of repairs is 
considerably less ; and, again, the first cost of the 
asphalt is less than that of the Belgian pavement, 
while the expense of repairing is greater. The as- 
phalt coating, one sixth of a foot thick, is supported 
upon a roadbed of concrete, composed of ninety parts 
gravel to forty parts of mortar, about a quarter of a 
foot in thickness, and rested upon the compacted soil 
bed beneath. Provided the requisites of thorough 
surface and under drainage have been observed, the 
asphalt roofing being utterly impervious to water, 
the roadbed of concrete waxes harder and drier with 
age, and, once made, is imperishable. Repairs are 
easy, and consist simply in cutting away the damaged 
roofing of asphalt and replacing it with new. As 
compared with the Belgian pavement, the liability to 
fall of horses being driven over the asphaltic road is 



182 SILTFICATION OF WOOD. 

1 in 1409 to 1 in 1308 on the former, proving the 
superiority of the asphaltic surface in this respect — 
that is, in surety of foothold. 

The concrete known as beton Coignet differs from 
the ordinary roadbed concrete in being an artificially 
formed sandstone of great durability and strength, 
and of extensive application in civil engineering in 
all its ramifications, from the manufacture of sewers 
to the construction of aqueducts, from the fabrication 
of roadbeds to that of underground vaults of the ut- 
most capacity. The best beton endures a rushing 
strength four and three-fourth times that of the best 
brick, fifty per cent, greater than that of limestone, 
fifty per cent, greater than that of sandstone, and 
about forty per cent, less than that of the strongest 
granite, to thirty-five per cent, more than that of the 
inferior qualities. For common use a good beton is 
compounded of four parts of sand and one part of fat 
lime, to which, for extra strength, one half part of 
Portland cement may be added. It could be manu- 
factured here at an expense of four dollars per cubic 
yard, and for roadbed, a quarter foot thick, at sixty 
cents per square yard. The embankment on which 
runs the Avenue de l'Empereur, at the Trocadere, is 
supported by a wall of this material forty feet in 
height, for the distance of a quarter of a mile ; and, in 
general, the subject of its application is now being 
discussed and experimented upon by the best engineers 



SILIFICATIOK OF WOOD. 183 

in France, with a view to extend to the utmost the 
constructive capacity in engineering of so inexpensive 
a meterial as that developed by the invention of M . 
Goignet ; while in the sewerage system it is rapidly 
superseding every thing else. In it no doubt is, at 
the end, to be sought the solution of the sewerage 
problem in this city, if the administration thereof ever 
falls, with the needed powers of discretion, into the 
hands of a competent board of engineers. What is 
wanted in the problem is the boldness to break loose 
from worn out ideas and apply the best invention of 
the age to the development of a better and more 
adequate system — a quality which lias been startlingly 
exhibited, w^ith equally startling and successful results, 
in the administration of the Departments of the Seine 
and in the construction of public works in Paris for 
the past ten years. 

Most foreignars travelling in France remark the 
excellence of the macadamized roads, and not un- 
frequently suppose that there must be something 
peculiarly favorable in the nature of the soil or some- 
thing unique in the method of construction. The 
supposition is not true to fact, however ; the quality 
of the roads in France being attributable to good en- 
gineering and care and exactness in all the processes 
of construction and preservation. In fact, in the 
system of Tresaquet and Simplon the system intro- 
duced into England by MacAdam in 1816 had been 



184 SILIFICATIO^ OF WOOD. 

anticipated more than half a century. MacAdam 
copied Simplon in his road-bed, while Telford did 
nothing more than return to the system founded by 
Tresaquet in place of the still earlier road-bed of flat 
stones. The roads of France are simply illustrations 
of what may be done by good construction rather than 
of any superiority of facilities ; those of the city of 
New- York are to a great extent examples of the result 
of slovenly construction with sufficient facilities for 
the best of work. And this leads to the general 
principle, that of the several pavements in use any 
one is practically good enough for all purposes when 
well constructed. The defect is not in the theory of 
the pavement itself, but in the defective and slovenly 
application of it under the contract system. As in 
railroad-building, with the result of innumerable 
accidents, so in street-paving defective road-bed is the 
great sin of the contractor ; and, as in railroad-building, 
the United States cannot be compared with France or 
England for thoroughness and attention to the details 
which result in perfection, so, in the matter of pav- 
ement ajid the laying of it, American contractors on 
the average are slovenly and inefficient. Contracts 
for street-paving are annually awarded in this city to 
persons whom a competent European engineer would 
not trust as workers under a superintendent ; and thus, 
through ignorance in many cases, through greed in 
many cases, through both together existing in many 



SfLIFICATION OF WOOD. 185 

cases, it is seldom that New York can boast of a 
section of pavement properly put down with due 
attention to all details. What is 

Tpie Coming Pavement, 

or which, of the several kinds now bidding for popular 
favor, is a- question not easily answered. As a rule, 
competent engineers express doubts as to the merits 
of the £ueoIson 5 and of wooden pavements of all 
patterns. In the Nicolson structure tlie road-bed is 
of sharp, clean sand, of the proper thickness. A basis 
is then made by-laying common boards, dipped in hot 
coal-tar, lengthwise on stringers of like material laid 
from curb to curb. The blocks forming the super- 
structure are of Southern hard pine, three by four, 
and are set on end in rows, crosswise of the street — 
the blocks before setting being dipped to half their 
length in a bath of hot coal-tar. Between the rows 
of blocks intervene pickets of thin boards set on edge 
and leaving an opening between the rows of blocks, 
of a foot or nearly in depth. This opening is filled 
with clean screened gravel rammed down with a 
pavor's rammer, and an iron blade made for the pur- 
pose, and the surface is covered with hot coal-tar. 
The gutter exhibits its lowest point half a foot from 
the curb. The whole surface is covered with coal-tar 
sufficiently boiled to be tough and fibrous, but not 
brittle, upon which is sprinkled a layer of fine gravel 



186 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

and common sand. The Stafford pavement differs 
from the Nicolson in the laying of large blocks prepar- 
ed after the Seely patent, resting upon stringers, which 
in their turn may be supported by any specified road- 
bed. Provided the road-bed is sufficiently secure, say 
of strong concrete, and the upper deposit is made suffi- 
ciently complete, the Stafford pavement cannot but 
compare favorably with other wooden pavements, and, 
for simplicity, is quite superior to the Nicolson. Both 
obviate certain objections in surface way, which 
pertain to the Belgian, in the w^ear and tear of vehi- 
cles and horses, and the noise or reverberation of 
wheels ; but both are inferior to the asphaltic road in 
these respects, while the asphaltic has one great supe- 
riority valuable as a preventive of accident — to wit, 
the beating of the hoof of the horse is rendered very 
audible — audible above all other sounds — so as to be 
measurable by the ear in the matter of distance. 
This latter advantage can only be estimated by per- 
sons who have taken occasion to note the extent to 
which one falls into the habit of measuring the dis- 
tance of a vehicle from any given crossing by the ear; 
and one of the main liabilities to accident occuring 
from wooden pavements is the muffling, or compara- 
tive muffling, of the hoof-beat. In this respect, in 
fact, any form of concrete pavement possesses mate- 
rial advantages over either the stone block, which ex- 
aggerates the rumble of wheels and obscures the 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 187 

hoof-beat, or the wooden pavement, which, reduces 
both in about equal proportions. In a word, a grave 
objection to the Nicolson pavement is the fact, that in 
just one respect it is a trifle too noiseless for the 
safety of pedestrians in crossing, especially in these 
days when every driver seems to be possessed with 
the devil to run over somebody. Again, in case of 
extensive conflagration in any part of the city, the 
wooden pavement might prove a dangerous ally by 
ignition, an instance of which has recently occurred 
in Philadelphia. Neither of the wooden pavements 
above named command the unqualified admiration of 
practical engineers as yet, though the test of use is 
the measure of merit in these matters, and neither 
has been in use here sufficiently long to warrant the 
expression of an opinion. In the great desideratum 
of simplicity, as well as in the ease of repair, the Staf- 
ford seems to possess advantages over its elder in the 
field ; but there is no likelihood that either will 
supersede the stone-block to any great extent. The 
coming pavement, in fact, from all indications in- 
cluded in the survey of the subject, is not to be found 
in an} 7 use of wooden blocks in any form or under 
any conditions. 

If the Belgian (stone-block) is ever superceded — 
and it will be within the next twenty years — that 
supersession will have been brought about by inven- 
tion, in the way of practicable concretes. The as- 



188 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

phaltic road in Paris has given an impulse to investi- 
gation in this direction which will not stop until some 
practicable substitute for the stone-block (Belgian) 
has been developed. The age of block-stone pave- 
ments is in its last quarter — to borrow a metaphor 
from the moon. 

The merits of the wooden pavement are its noiseless- 
ness, its reduction of the mortality of horses, its reduc- 
tion of the wear and tear of vehicles, and its effecting 
a utilization of the utmost percentage of draught force, 
and these are all merits to an equal degree of the as- 
phaltic road, and may be made merits of any concrete 
whatsoever. The increased mortality in horses occa- 
sioned by the Russ and Belgian and other stone pave- 
ments in this city is estimated at 3,500 annually — an 
item of considerable importance in the discrimination 
between pavements for thoroughfares. As between 
the two typical structures, the Belgian and the Nic- 
olson, from data already supplied, it may be estimated 
that, with the attrition of Broadway, the former 
would last fifteen years against a last of half that 
period in the case of the latter, if, indeed, the Nicol- 
son can be regarded as equal to the necessities of 
Broadway at all. It is seen, therefore, that while 
the stone block (Belgian or Russ) is open to grave 
objections on the one hand, the wooden pavements 
(Nicolson and Stafford) are open to equally serious 
objections, on the other hand, on the score of lessened 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 189 

durability. The concrete pavement — the value of 
which has been happily settled in Paris — effects a 
union of the better qualities of both, without the ob- 
jections appertaining to either; and, as the minds of 
engineers and inventors are already beginning to 
turn in this direction, nothing is hazarded in predict- 
ing that the ideal or coining pavement will be devel- 
oped from the present crude concretes. The asphalt 
road, one triumph of concretion, the beton Coignet, 
another triumph in a direction of equal practical im- 
portance, the attempts at concrete from inexpensive 
material in this country, all point to the hypothesis 
that the solution of the long-mooted pavement prob- 
lem is at hand, in the evolution of a concrete roadway 
combining the durability of the stone-block with the 
advantages of the wooden superstructure. Valuable 
hints as to the constitution of concretes may be found 
in the reports of Messrs. Beckwith on beton Coignet, 
and asphalt and bitumen as applied to the construc- 
tion of streets and sidewalks in Paris ; and, in the 
way of American invention, the constitution of the 
Fiske concrete pavement, under the Hairm Burlew 
patent, may be studied, but has proved so far a great 
failure in Fifth avenue, where the concrete had to be 
taken up again last winter. This pavement is com- 
posed of gravel, broken stone, cinders and coal ashes 
(free from all foreign substances), mixed in definite pro- 
portions with tar, rosin, and asphaltum. The road- 



190 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

bed properly prepared, the composition is spread on 
in layers of moderate thickness, successively rolled 
with heavy rollers for uniformity and compactness. 
These layers form a sufficiently strong roadway of 
from half to three-quarters of a foot in depth, and can 
be put down at an expense, per square foot, not ex- 
ceeding the expense of the asphalt road as constructed 
in Paris. It remains for years and attrition to test 
the practical value of this concrete ; but, in general, 
it may be remarked, that it is heartily and highly 
commended by thoughtful engineers as a step in the 
right direction. The sonorousness of the hoof-beat, 
as enabling the pedestrian to measure the imminence 
of passing vehicles, is an element of concretes over 
wooden pavements, illustrated in an eminent degree 
by the asphaltic road, the value of which as a preven- 
tive of accidents cannot be overestimated. A pave- 
ment may be too noiseless as well as too noisy for 
immunity in this respect, and by all means let the 
capacity of the concrete be developed to the utmost. 
The Commissioners of the Park have also developed 
some excellent roadways in their admirable system of 
earth roads upon a similar principle ; though in rela- 
tion to the Park, the problem has been less difficult 
of solution, no necessity existing to provide for the 
contingency of heavy traffic. In its capacity for the 
combination of all the qualities which experience 
has proved to be desirable in a roadway for large 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 191 

cities, the concrete must therefore be ranked as supe- 
rior to either of its competitors, with some most im- 
portant and indispensable improvements to be applied, 
and as embodying in itself the germ of the coming 
pavement in this city, and the suggested reforms in 
the sewarage system having been carried out, atten- 
tion may be directed to the production of an inexpen- 
sive concrete, analogous to the asphaltic road. 

Discussion on the subject as it relates to the city 
would be incomplete without due consideration of 
the 

Typical Historical Pavement, 

based upon the Roman system, and its susceptibility 
for improvement ; for it is a fact that a large class of 
conservative engineers still look for the advent of the 
ideal pave in some modification of the stone- 
block on the concrete road-bed. The completion, 
during the past week, of the relay of the Broadway 
pave, at an expense of nearly $500,000, recalls the 
fact that no question exists as to the vulue of the sub- 
structure of concrete. The question is as to super- 
structure. Large stone blocks on a road-bed of sand 
form the major part of the pavement of the city — the 
large block pave being less expensive than the small. 
On Broadway the unique feature introduced consists 
in splitting the blocks by a lateral fissure, leaving 
them in point of superficial appearance parallelo- 



192 SALIFICATION OF WOOD. 

grams a quarter of a foot in width, against a foot or 
thereabouts in length. This, by quadrupling the 
number of joints, affords a sure foothold for horses,, 
especially as the blocks are laid traversely — the line 
of travel crossing the linear of the nave and surface 
at right angles with the length, with the effect to 
afford an average of four clinging points for the 
horseshoe in the new pave to one in the old. This 
decreases the liability to slip, really dividing it by 
four, and, with the concrete bed, fulfils the ideal of 
the old Roman pave. The want of elasticity is, how- 
ever, in nowise obviated ; the difficulty of traction is 
by no means lessened, the jar and volume of sound 
<are not in the leastwise substracted from. The sani- 
tary purpose is met, and percolation is prevented ; 
but no part of the $10,000,000 annual wear and tear 
of horses and vehicles is saved; and this is a matter 
to be considered in the pavement of a city. The im- 
portant question is to settle upon the desiratum in 
the way of superstructure. The true method of in- 
vention would seem to be to make heton Coignet the 
basis, and to this to superadd some fourth ingredient 
to develop the needed elasticity, which may be 
effected by the addition of the liquid silicates. Tar 
boiled to the point of elastic solidity, or asphaltum, 
which can be procured at twenty dollars per ton r 
currency, might be added in small proportions to the 
heton; and in this way, by experiment, a concrete 



SILIPICATION OF WOOD. 193 

might be developed equal in all respects to the as- 
phaltic road, now so popular with the engineers in 
Paris. The hugh quarries of trap along the East 
River render the Russ pavement tolerably inexpen- 
sive ; and hence, in order practically to supercede it r 
something must be produced which can be put at 
$2.50 or less per square yard, and as durable as the 
block-stone. An able and competent engineer esti- 
mates the loss in horses, extra wear of vehicles and 
extra horseshoeing in the cities of the United States, 
occasioned by block-stone and cobble-stone pave- 
ments, at — 

On horses $15,000,000 

On vehicles 20,000,000 

On horseshoing 21,000,000 

Total $56,000,000 

The province of invention in respect to pavements,, 
is to save this vast amount by the substitution of a 
concrete upper structure as inexpensive and durable 
as the Belgian, and as elastic and easy as the wooden, 
which has failed in the respect of durability as well 
as over-expensiveness, and can never be generally 
adopted. 

Most roadway surfaces, it is clear, should afford, in 
the first place, certain and firm foothold for horses ; 
secondly, as little resistance to wheels as possible ; 
thirdly, permanence, as regards structure and firm- 



194 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

ness ; fourthly, such qualities as will ensure ease in 
draining and cleaning ; and fifthly, facility for re- 
moval and replacement. There can be no difference 
of opinion about these conditions. No matter how 
thoroughly excellent a pavement may be otherwise, 
if it only affords a slippery and unstable footing for 
horses, it is worthless, and its perfection in other 
points wasted. The greater the amount of strength 
the horse has to exert the more increased is his lia- 
bility to slip. This arises from the fact that his hoof 
always strikes the pavement toe first, the point of 
contact then becoming the fulcrum about which his 
leg moves as a lever, so that the greater the load the 
greater the pressure on this fulcrum, with resulting 
increased tendency to slip. Hence, no pavement is 
at all perfect which presents a smooth, hard, un- 
broken surface, or that has any great longitudinal or 
transverse slope. A pavement, to offer as little resist- 
ance to wheels as possible, must have great hardness, 
smoothness, evenness, and no elasticity. As to per- 
manence as regards surface and structure, any pave- 
ment requiring frequent renewals is an expensive 
one, no matter how small its original cost. True 
economy will allow a most liberal original outlay for 
a pavement which, if satisfactory in other respects, 
affords permanence. The cost of frequent renewals 
and repairs is not only a large item of direct expense 
but while the pavement is settling and wearing 



SILIFICATIOBT OF WOOD. 195 

smooth the draught and the wear and tear of vehicles 
are increased, and the necessary blocking up of the 
roadway while the repairs of construction are actu- 
ally in progress, causes delay and time-consuming 
detours, unavoidably crowding the adjacent streets, 
while greatly inconveniencing warehouse owners by 
preventing the delivery and loading of goods imme- 
diately at the warehouses. To secure permanence 
we must consider locality, material, construction and 
surface. As to the locality, it is essential to examine 
the nature of its traffic and transportation, the nature 
of the soil on which the pavement must rest, and the 
climate to which it w^ill be exposed. The nature of 
the traffic should be specially studied, as it would be 
manifestly injudicious and wasteful to place a stone 
block or iron pavement on the roads of pleasure 
grounds, or, vice versa, to transfer a park gravel road 
to a crowded business street. We should note the 
character of the soil, whether it be properly drained 
by nature or artificially ; whether it is composed of 
homogeneous, dry and incompressible material, like 
sand, or is soft and spongy, as it invariably is when 
the street has been much used without pavement, or 
has been filled in with building or street rubbish. 
The climate of the locality must be considered, as 
some pavements lasting well under certain conditions 
of moisture and temperature become speedily perish- 
able when these conditions are changed. This, per- 



19<> SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

haps, is particularly noticeable in the use of wooden 
or macadamized pavements. Pavement material 
should be thoroughly examined with regard to its 
tendency to decay and disintegration, to tearing to 
piece- or grinding up. With regard to construction, 
we must separately look to the foundation and the 
upper part, or pavement proper. Without proper 
foundation or bed no pavement can attain much 
longevity. It must be thoroughly dry, rigid or in- 
compressible, and when uniformly thick pavement 
blocks are used, even-surfaced. A clean pavement is 
not only healthy and sightly, but economical. The 
pavement surface should be so graded as to clean it- 
self to a great extent during every rain-fall. This 
may be most efficiently accomplished by the longitu- 
dinal slope of the street, very slight lateral slopes 
being needed. 

Various Systems Adopted for Broadway Pave- 

MEXTS. 

A great variety of systems have been adopted for 
roadway pavements. The most convenient classifi- 
cation of them is' into gravel compositions, broken 
stone, plank, wooden block, cobble stone or pebble 
stone block and iron block pavements and tramways. 
The first attempts at pavements generally com- 
mence with the use of gravel. Roads thus made 
possess the advantages of cheapness of material and 



SILIFTCATIOX OF WOOD. 197 

construction. In the Park, where there are probably 
the most perfect roads in this country, they have 
shown better endurance than those made on the mac- 
adam plan. Gravel roads, when properly constructed 
and maintained, are comparatively smooth and noise- 
less, besides affording excellent foothold for horses. 
The great objections to them are that they cannot be 
kept firm enough to afford easy draught for heavy 
traffic ; that they lack, in a high degree, permanence, 
and are constantly requiring repairs ; that they are 
difficult to keep clean and to drain properly ; the 
rapidly grinding and crushing to powder tending 
greatly to cause dust in dry weather and mud in wet 
weather ; and, lastly, that the best construction yet 
attained has failed to prevent them from washing 
into gullies. Under the head of second composition 
pavements may properly be included pavements 
formed by the combinations of several materials, such 
as the famous asphalt pavement of Paris, concrete, 
beton, gutta percha, slag, cinder, and other pave- 
ments ; also, those formed according to the experi- 
ments of McISTeil, partly of broken stone and partly 
of pieces of cast metal, laid on a sub-pavement of 
rubble stone. The asphalt pavement of Paris, so 
often recommended in newspaper articles, is really 
quite an imperfect pavement. It is generally formed 
on a foundation of macadamized road. Powdered 
asphalt is placed on the foundation and stamped with 



19S SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

hot rammers until it is very hard and has a thickness 
of one or two inches. It is very pleasant and smooth 
to ride over, but requires most constant watching and 
repairing. It is slippery in wet weather, and exces- 
sively so at a freezing temperature. 

Pavements of Granite. 

Granite blocks, considered in every respect, form 
one of the most perfect pavements known. They are 
preferred, and almost exclusively adopted, in Lon- 
don. The Russ pavement, the nearest approach to 
a perfect pavement yet constructed in this city, has, 
in imitation of the Roman pavement, a beton founda- 
tion of six inches thick. The beton is composed of 
one part cement to two and a half parts of broken 
stone and two parts of gravel. On this foundation 
are laid hard granite blocks ten inches deep, ten to 
eighteen inches long, and from five to twelve inches 
wide. It is very durable, and yet, as shown in Broad- 
way, this excellent pavement has most signally 
failed, the surface of the granite used polishing and 
affording dangerous foothold. What is required, and 
this would give a perfect pavement, is the adoption 
of the kind of stone blocks used in London, which do 
not polish by wear, and present joints about every 
four inches. Another pavement is now being substi- 
tuted here in an imperfect manner. The blocks now 
used are of a coarser granite, twelve inches long, nine 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 199 

inches deep, and four inches wide, the courses run- 
ning at right angles with the line of the street. What 
is known as the Belgian pavement was, until recently, 
the principal one in use in the old streets of Paris, 
and, as is well known, has been quite extensively 
adopted in this city. This pavement has the advan- 
tage of cheapness, and, if well laid, of economy, the 
necessary and actual cost being a little over one- 
half that of the Nicolson pavement. The final 
trouble, however, is their becoming polished and 
slippery, and hence they should not be laid in streets 
where they are subject to constant use. 

Iron Block Pavements. 

Several attempts have been made, with more or 
less success, to cast iron in blocks suitable for pave- 
ments. The chief objection is the cost of iron, but if 
properly laid there can be no doubt of its being 
cheaper in the end than most other pavements. It 
has failed here on account of its inadequate and de- 
fective foundation, and on account of the principle 
employed of keying. The rings pressing on the sand 
foundation £ave too little bearing: surface, and any 
weight tended greatly to displace or overturn the 
block, which occurring, all the neighboring ones key- 
ing into it were released, and unless quickly repaired, 
the ruin of the whole pavement soon followed. It 
has stood much better in Boston, and for the simple 



200 . SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

reason of its being better laid. It lias stood there 
admirably, and shows no material signs of surface 
wear after ten or twelve years of constant use. It 
can be cast in such form as to give the best foothold 
for horses drawing heavy loads. It can be kept per- 
fectly even and made smooth as the Xicolson pave- 
ment, and by its extreme hardness will give much 
less resistance to wheels. Being of uniform quality, 
all parts will wear equally and as perfect a face will 
always be presented as when new. Its smoothness 
tends greatly to lessen the noise, as this nuisance is 
caused principally by the boxes of the wheels 
striking against the collars on the axles, and of 
course increases with roughness of pavement surface. 
Iron, furthermore, loses but little from oxidation. It 
can be kept as clean as the Xicclson pavement, with 
the advantage of non-absorption. It has one great 
advantage in being made so as to be easily and readily 
removed and replaced, the blocks formed from the 
same pattern, being exact counterparts. 

The Fisk Concrete Pavement. 

This pavement is composed of seventy per cent, in 
bulk of broken stone, coal or gravel, clean coal or 
iron cinders not over three inches in any dimensions. 
These are passed over a screen with meshes one quar- 
ter inch square. The coarser portion is then coated 
by mixing with tar, warm or cold, and then spread 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 201 

on the roadbed and heavily rolled until a depth of 
four inches is attained. The finer portion is then 
mixed with clean sharp sand, warmed, and then thor- 
oughly mixed with tar, to which has been added 
rosin, carbojapanis or pitch. This is placed on the 
first layer of coarse material and rolled until a depth 
or two inches is attained, after which the surface is 
covered with an excess of clean sharp sand and again 
rolled. 

The Xicolsox Pavemext. 

We now come to the subject of wooden pavements. 
The first general attempt to use wooden blocks for 
pavements took place some thirty years ago both in 
this country and Europe. They are generally made 
in the form of hexagonal prisms of hard wood, laid 
directly on sand or earth. Leading off in the list of 
wooden pavements adopted in this city is the Nicolson 
pavement. In laying this pavement, the street is 
first prepared by a sufficient covering of sand, which 
is brought to the proper crown with a straight edge 
made for that purpose. This surface is then covered 
with common round, inch boards, laid lengthwise 
with the line of the street. The ends of these boards 
rest on stringers of the same material laid from curb 
to curb. 

Both sides of these boards are covered with hot coal 
tar. The blocks are of Southern pine, three inches 



202 SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

wide and six inches deep, and are set on end in rows 
crosswise of the street. Before setting, the blocks 
are dipped to half their height in hot coal tar. Be- 
tween each row of blocks, and at their base, pickets 
one inch thick and three inches wide are nailed on 
edge. The opening thus formed between the rows is 
tilled with clean screened gravel rammed with a 
payor's rammer an iron blade made for that purpose, 
and then covered with hot coal tar. The whole of 
the upper surface of the pavement, when laid, is 
covered with hot coal tar, boiled to a consistency, 
which, when cold, is to be tough, fibrous and not 
brittle, and then covered with fine gravel and com- 
mon sand. After the top gravel has become packed 
on the surface and in the grooves, the street is swept. 

The M'Gonegal Pavement. 

This pavement, claimed to be an improvement on 
the Nicolson, to which it is similar, consists of a 
foundation of two inches of heton, on which are 
placed wooden blocks six inches deep, two and three- 
quarter inches wide, and from four to sixteen inches 
in length. Holes of one and a half inches in diame- 
ter, and three and a half inches deep, are bored in 
each block, and then triangular grooves formed on 
each side of the blocks, so that when two blocks are 
placed together, there will be a square opening one 
and a quarter inch square to receive a wooden dowel 



SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 203r 

or key. The wood used for blocks and keys is pre- 
pared for preservation by Bobbins' process. In lay- 
ing, the blocks and keys are dipped in hot coal tar. 
The perforations in the blocks are filled with clean 
roofing sand. The pavement is finished by a coating 
three-quarters of an inch in thickness of coal tar and 
fine sand. These are the specifications as we have 
described them ; but where this pavement has been 
laid in this city, a foundation of flooring of tarred 
boards has been substituted for that ofbeton. 

The Stowe Pavement. 

In constructing this pavement, which is alsa 
wooden, and a cheap form of the Nicolson, the street 
is first filled with sand, loam or loose earth, free from 
stones, to within about six inches of the desired 
street grade, but smoothed off so as to conform 
to the desired arch or crown of the street ; then 
blocks of sound pine or spruce wood three inches in 
thickness, and six inches in length, are set on their 
ends in a tier across the street, these blocks being cut 
square at both ends. A tier of blocks made wedge- 
shape at their ends by beveling on one side is set 
across the street close against the first tier of square- 
ended blocks, which are set up as before, and so on 
alternate tiers of square and wedge-shaped blocks are 
placed until a space of ten feet or more is covered, 
then the wedge-shaped blocks are driven down into 



204: SILIFICATION OF WOOD. 

the sand or earth with rammer and swage until the 
foundation is of the required compactness. The cells 
or spaces between the three-inch blocks are filled 
with clean coarse gravel, not exceeding three-fourths 
of an inch in diameter, thoroughly driven with ram- 
mer and swage, then the gravel saturated with hot 
coal tar, and the whole surface covered with hot coal 
tar, and lastly, the pavement covered with fine gravel 
or sand. 

The Brown and Miller Pavement. 

This pavement is also similar to the jSacolson, only 
that its blocks are not set vertically, but at an angle 
of forty-five degrees, and rest on sills of a prismatic 
form, which, in turn, rest on boards placed five feet 
apart and parallel with the line of the street. 

The Bobbins' Pavement. 

This is another of the multifarious wooden pave- 
ments recently introduced in this city. It is very 
similar to the Xicolson, only the wood used is first 
prepared by Robbins' patent wood preserving pro- 

The Stafford Pavement 

is only another imitation of the great original Nicol- 
son. The blocks are dressed to a uniform thickness, 
grooved in the middle with a double dovetail, two 



SILICIFICATION OF WOOD. 205 

and one-half by three-fourth inches, each side of the 
block bevelled at one end, and running to an edge so 
as to form a groove on the upper surface. 

Seeley's Concrete Pavement 

now being put down in Eleventh street, near Univer- 
sity place, consists of sulphur, three parts ; gas tar, 
twelve parts ; silica (pebbles) sixty parts, by weight. 
The pebbles are heated 230° Fahrenheit before being 
mixed with the melted sulphur and tar. 



The failure of the concrete in Fifth Avenue for 
which the citizens were mulcted in the sum of half a 
million of dollars, and which was taken up during 
the winter on account of its uselessness. The various 
stone pavements, which have from time to time been 
brought forward by the patentees and speculating 
companies, have all brought the unbiased and practi- 
cal men to the conclusion that for comfort a wooden 
pavement in such streets as Fifth Avenue, would 
prove by far preferable to any other, provided it is 
made durable, at the same time a proper concrete as 
mentioned in these pages in connection with silicates 
may with great propriety be employed as a base but 
not as a capping for either stone or wooden pave- 
ment ; whether this shall be a concrete or whether 
the base shall be of planks properly prepared and 

9 



206 SILICIFICATION OF WOOD. 

silicified so as to construct the blocks upon it, is a 
matter of great importance, and is well worth a re- 
flection and experiment upon a small scale, but not 
hazarding an outlay of perhaps a million of dollars, 
and the experiment to prove again a failure. 

The following method of application is recommen- 
ded by the author : 

The planks and wooden blocks, intended as pave- 
ment, the size of the planks being from 10 to 12 feet 
in length and 1 inch in thickness, and the blocks 
from 10 to 12 inches square and in the first place ex- 
posed the iron boilers to a temperature of 300° F. for 
several hours, or kept for 4-6 hours in boiling water, 
containing 2 per cent, of soda ash, which possesses 
the property of dissolving the albumen and sap con- 
tained in the cells of the wood and by the boiling the 
coloring matter is extracted from the wood; when 
taken from the boilers, they are brought in drying 
chambers of high temperature, and then removed to 
vats containing crude carbolic acid and tar water 
standing for 6-8° B. which will enter into the pores, 
left open by the previous process and a large portion 
of the liquid will be absorbed ; from thence they are 
thrown in vats containing hot silicate of soda, stand- 
ing 20° B. and left therein for 4-6 hours ; they are 
then removed and dried either in air or hot chambers. 
When perfectly dry they are suitable for being put 
on a smooth ground, which may consist of a cement 



SILICIFICATION OF WOOD. 207 

of silicated hydraulic lime or cement. The interstices 
of the ends of the blocks may likewise be made tight 
by applying a silica cement between each. 

The Mode of Application. 

The frequent enquiries how to apply the soluble 
glass, and how much is required for spreading over 
certain surfaces, may herewith be recommended in the 
following manner ; application for hardening stones as 
a mortar between bricks, or any cement or composi- 
tion for wall, cistern, cellar, or roofing. 

In all cases the liquid soluble glass, either the 
silicate of soda or potash, or both combined, are 
diluted with equal quantities of water so as to stand 
25 Q B, If strong cements, or lutes, where various 
other substances along with the dry silicate and 
metallic oxides are to be employed, the soluble glass 
is not diluted but employed from 30-35° B, suffi- 
ciently to make a plastic composition ; but where 
it is intended for mending or filling cracks or holes 
either in stoves or iron castings, discretion of the 
consistency of the mass must be used, as it may be 
more advantageous for the cement to dry slowly, so 
as to prevent too sudden a contraction. 

For painting or coating on stone, it is useful to 
apply the dilute by a syringe, and if necessary, re- 
peat the operation 2-3 times after each drying. For 
preserving monuments, tombstones, marble columns, 



208 SILICIFICATION OF WOOD. 

etc., the dilute silicate of soda may be used as a 
wash with or without the addition of baryta (the 
precipitated sulphate of baryta is always preferred 
although expensive), lead, zinc, or limewash, by 
means of a paint brush and according to the con- 
dition of the stone as to porosity. If the chloride 
of calcium, chloride of iron, or dilute hydrofluoric 
acid are applied upon the surface of the stone, 
cement or paint, they are thrown over the silicated 
surface uniformly, so as to cover every part of the 
material to be treated. In all cases it is understood 
that the silicate application is to be applied on new 
stone, for it will not adhere on old paint ; therefore, 
if it is to be used, it is indispensible that it 
be first removed by soap, caustic alkali, spirits of 
turpentine, or even acids, and when perfectly clean 
and dry, the operation of silicating may take place. 
In all cases where the substances are to be painted 
or undergo a silification, it may be repeated 2-3 times 
at each interval of at least 12 hours ; a weak hydro- 
fluoric acid may in all cases be used as a wash over 
the silicated stones; 1,000 square feet of wall cover- 
ing can be executed with 200 gallons of dilute silicate 
of either soda or potash. In diluting the silicate, it 
is well to employ 3 applications of various quali- 
ties, such as for instance, the first coat may consist of 
part of silica to 2 parts of water, and another of 
equal quantities of water, and the last coat the dilu- 
tion to be 1 part of water. 



SILICIFICATION OF WOOD. 209 

"Wood and timber of every description may be 
treated with the concentrated silicates. 

For Preservation of Walls. 

It is well known that brick absorbs its weight of 
moisture and requires much attention. The external 
surfaces of the walls to be protected are first washed 
with a silicate of soda, which is applied again and 
again, until the bricks are saturated, and the silicate 
ceases to be absorbed. The strength of the solution is 
regulated by the character of the bricks upon which it 
is to be applied, a heavier mixture being used upon 
porous walls, and a lighter one on those of denser 
texture. After the silicate has become thoroughly ab- 
sorbed, and none is visible upon the surface, a solution 
of chloride of calcium is applied, which, immediately 
combining with the silicate of soda, forms a perfectly 
insoluble compound, which completely fills up all the 
interstices in the brick or stone, without in any way 
altering its original appearance. By this operation 
the wall is rendered perfectly watertight, and, as the 
pores of the bricks are thoroughly filled for a consi- 
derable depth from the surface with the insoluble 
compound, which is entirely unaffected by atmos- 
pheric influences, no subsequent process is necessary. 



"210 silicification of wood. 

The Protection of Rail Road Sleepers, Cross 
Ties, Frame Houses, Telegraph Poles, Timber, 
States, Shingles, Laths, Tanks, Tubs, Casks, 
Barrels (Petroleum, Naptha, Spirits Turpen- 
tine, Alcohol, Linseed Oil), Cisterns, and 
Every Description of Wood, against Fire, 
Dry Rot and Leakage. 

The seasoning or initiatory preparation of the lum- 
ber, so as to destroy the organic or nitrogenized mat- 
ters enclosed in all the cells of vegetable matters, are 
dissolved and washed out of it, or, in other words, 
the removal of all the albumen, sap and coloring 
matter, is effected by exposing for from four to six 
hours to boiling water, containing about one per 
cent, of soda ash hi solution. They are then with- 
drawn and dried in hot rooms, and then thrown into 
tanks containing the tar and carbolic acid water, and 
left for a few hours, then dried again and thrown into 
a hot solution of silicate of soda standing 20 Q B., in 
which they are left for ten or twelve hours. When 
removed from here a weak limewash is applied with 
a brush or sponge, consisting of 10 lbs. slacked lime 
to 40 gallons of water, when likewise they are re- 
moved to a dry or hot air ; after that a weak wash of 
chloride of calcium is thrown or brushed over them 
when nearly dry. The process is then finished, and 
the articles so prepared will resist the elements as 



SILICIFICATIOlsr OF WOOD. 211 

above stated. They increase in weight by this pro- 
cess about 6 per cent. After this treatment, they 
assume upon the first drying a glazed appearance, 
and the pores are filled with insoluble silicas precipi- 
tated by the action of the tar liquor upon the alkali 
of the silicate of soda. Barrels which have been 
treated may be rendered perfectly impervious by fill- 
ing up the chimes (the inside of those barrels having 
been treated with the silicate of soda and chloride 
calcium) with a thin silicated cement applied on the 
interstices. No air nor any liquid will then have 
any effect ; the lightest liquid may then be kept in 
those prepared barrels without escaping — flour, but- 
ter, lard, and many other perishable substances may 
be kept for a length of time in barrels so prepared. 
Spirits of turpentine, linseed oil, alcohol, and other 
spirituous liquors may safely be transported and kept 
for a length of time without evaporation or loss in 
the contents of the barrels. Telegraph poles, which 
are from twenty to thirty feet long, require a differ- 
ent treatment for their seasoning before they undergo 
the silification. They are steeped first in the tar 
carbolic liquid, in holes dug in the ground with tanks 
built in the same, and left in there for several 
days, then taken out and undergoing the other pro- 
cess of silicate of soda, limewash and chloride of cal- 
cium, as described, will render them proof against 
fire and dry rot. 



212 CEMENTS. 

The following Cements, Whitewash and Concretes 
have all been tested, and deserve a general introduc- 
tion : 

The Silica Cement a Preservative to the 
Bottom of Iron Ships. 

It is well known that iron ships have produced 
many disasters from rusting after long voyages ; the 
experiments tried for preventing the adherence of 
barnacles and the rusting have been very numerous. 
The author feels quite confident of success by the 
proper application of a silica cement prepared by a 
hot solution of asphaltum and fine sand, manganese, 
and liquid silicate of soda, and putting it on the bot- 
tom of the iron ships by means of a brush, and before 
becoming quite dry to dust over the paint more 
powdered manganese. 

The Most Adhesive Insoluble Cement. 

Blacklead, 6 lbs., are mixed with 3 lbs. slacked 
lime, 8 lbs. sulphate of raryta are mixed with 7 lbs. 
of linseed oil ; the whole mass is well mixed together 
to a uniform consistency, and the entire mass made 
more plastic with concentrated solution of silicate of 
soda. This cement may be used for numerous pur- 
poses, where hardness and adhesiveness are the de- 
sired objects, uniting at the same time steam and hot 
water. The clteapest Lubricator for locomotives, en- 



CEMENTS. 213 

gines and machinery is prepared from a mixture of 
silicate of soda liquid at 25° B. added to fine plum- 
bago, talc and aspestos in equal quantities, so as to re- 
tain the thin plastic condition, and capable of drop- 
ping it on the journals in very small portions. 

The Cheapest Whitewash, which is very durable 
for indoor and outdoor work, is prepared by the 
following composition : To 1 lb. slacked lime and 1 
lb. sulphate baryta, add 1 pint of silicate of soda and 
1 pailful of hot water ; stir the materials well toge- 
ther, and use it at once. If the color is intended for 
a yellow wash, add a quarter of a lb. chrome yellow ; 
if for a blue wash, use instead of the latter a quarter 
of a lb. of ultramarine (worth six cents) ; and if the 
paint is intended to coat iron railing, stoves, steam- 
boat chimneys, and to obtain a brown or black fire 
proof paint, add half a pound of manganite, an oxide 
of manganese, or the pyrolusite, which is the black 
or gray peroxide of manganese. 

The white wash or yellow wash just quoted is ex- 
tremely durable and cheap for wooden fences along 
railroad tracks, canal boats, farm houses, and other 
wooden structures. 

The Most Durable Aquarium Cement. 

The materials of a water-resisting composition are 
prepared by mixing finely powdered dry silicate of 
soda, powdered chalk, and fine sand in equal quan- 



2i4 CEMENTS. 

titles, made plastic with the liquid silicate, and ap- 
plied at the joints, and worked over with fluid chlo- 
ride of calcium, and when quite dry let some weak 
hydrofluoric acid pass over the cemented joints. 
This cement will be permanently impervious to water, 
and will not crack. The same composition is quite 
suitable for brewries, malt houses, linings for water- 
tanks, and cellars into which water flows. 

The author considers it advisable to show, also, the 
advantages of concrete by quoting Tail's system, ap- 
plied in Paris, and the description of the concrete 
bridge at London, and will state that the addition of 
silicate of soda to the concrete will undoubtedly en- 
sure a great saving. 

Tail's system has been used in the construction of 
a large number of houses in Paris, erected under the 
directions of the emperor, who takes great interest in 
the improvement of the working classes. This con- 
has also been applied in other parts of Europe, and 
to some extent in the United States. 

The work can be performed by ordinary laborers, 
who, after four or five days' experience, acquire all 
the requisite expertness. Even boys have been suc- 
cessfully employed in this kind of building. The 
only skilled workman necessary is a common carpen- 
ter, whose duty is to adjust the framework or appa- 
ratus to receive the successive courses of material, 



CEMENTS. 215 

and place joists, doors, and window-frames properly. 
The apparatus is designed to construct eighteen 
inches in height daily over the entire extent in hand, 
what is done in the evening of one day is hard next 
morning, and quite strong, the best proof of which is 
that the wall itself, as it rises in height, supports the 
necessary scaffolds. A double curb, entirely sur- 
rounding the upper part of the walls, serves to hold 
the plastic material in place, until it acquires suffi- 
cient hardness to support itself. 

The material consists of one part of Portland 
cement to eight parts of coarse gravel. The cement 
and gravel are first well mixed together in a dry 
state, and when this is done it is damped by 
means of a large watering-pot, containing some hot 
silicate of soda and again mixed by a pronged drag, 
such as is used for dragging dung out of a cart, 
until the entire heap has been wetted and mixed to- 
gether. It is then put in iron or zinc pails and 
poured into the frame, where it is leveled by men 
stationed for the purpose. In order to save concrete, 
large lumps of stones or brickbats are put into the 
centre of the wall, and covered over and about with 
concrete. Frost does not affect the concrete after it 
has once set, which, with good cement, will be in 
about five or six hours. Nor do heavy rains appear 
to injure it in the slightest degree, though they may 
chance to fall ere the concrete has hardened. The 



216 CEMENTS. 

walls can be made straight and even as it is possible 
for walls to be, and the corners as sharp and neat as 
if they had been formed of the most carefully dressed 
stone. 

Concrete makes excellent floors, and the walls and 
floors are quite impervious to vermin of all kinds, 
and also to wet. Many kinds of building bricks will 
absorb water ; hence, brick houses, when the walls 
are saturated with water, are cold. This is not the 
case with houses constructed of concrete, as it is non- 
absorbent of moisture, and such houses must be, 
therefore, more healthy. 

This novel mode of building houses has excited 
great interest in the neighborhood of Runnamoat, 
Ireland, and the proceedings have daily attracted 
numbers of people from all parts. 

While concrete may be used in constructing build- 
ings of every description, it is peculiarly adapted, 
from it cheapness, for the construction of cottages for 
laborers, and also for farm buildings. Its cost is not 
more than half that of brick-work ; almost any mate- 
rial can be used along with the cement, and as we 
have already shown, the most ordinary class of coun- 
try laborers are quite competent to carry out the de- 
tails of the system. With reference to its adaptabil- 
ity for large buildings, we may mention that a ware- 
house seventy feet long, fifty feet wide, and sixty feet 
high, five stories in all, has been erected on Mr. 



CEMENTS. 217 

Tail's system for Mr. H. Goodwin, Great Guilford 
street, Southwark, England, and that gentleman tes- 
tifies in the warmest terms to its satisfactory charac- 
ter, and is making arrangements at the present time 
for the construction of another similar building. The 
warehouse already erected has attracted universal ad- 
miration from the practical and scientific gentlemen 
who witnessed its erection. 

The chief element of success, when the cement is 
of good quality, seems to be the thorough mixture of 
the dry materials, to secure uniform strength. 

Concrete Bridge. 

The tests applied to the experimental bridge of 
concrete, set in cement, erected over that branch of 
the Metropolitan District Railway which forms one 
of the junctions between the circular line and the 
West London Extension, prove conclusively the re- 
liable character of concrete exposed to compressive 
strains. The structure experimented upon spans the 
open cutting between Gloucester-road Station and 
Earle's Court Road. It is a flat arch of 75 feet span, 
and 7 feet 6 inches rise in the centre, where the con- 
crete is 3 feet 6 inches in thickness, increasing to- 
wards the haunches, which abut upon the concrete 
skewbacks. The material of which the bridge is 
made is formed of gravel and Portland cement, 
blended in the proportions of six to one, carefully 



218 CEMENTS. 

laid in mass upon close boarding set upon the cen- 
tring, and enclosed at the sides. In testing the bridge 
rails were laid upon sleepers over the arch, which 
brought a load of two seventy-fifths of a ton per foot 
upon the structure. Seven trucks, weighing, toge- 
ther with their loads, forty-nine tons, were formed 
into a train, having a wheel base of fifty-seven feet ; 
hence the rolling load amounted to forty-nine-fifty- 
sevenths of a ton per foot run. The deflection pro- 
duced by the passage to and fro of this train four times 
was noted upon a standard, cemented to the side of 
the arch, at a distance of one-third the span from the 
abutments. When one side of the bridge was loaded, 
the extreme rise of the branch on the opposite side 
was about one-sixteenth of an inch, which was pro- 
duced by a maximum strain of 10 tons 14 cwt. per 
square foot. At a subsequent trial, a mass of gravel 
10 feet wide and 3 feet thick at the crown, and 6 feet 
deep at the haunches, was laid over the bridge, and 
upon this ballast was placed the permanent way. 
After an interval of a few days, the trucks, loaded as 
before, were passed over the bridge, at first in pairs, 
and finally all together. In this test the strain upon 
the concrete was as follows : 

The weight of the arch, as before 7 tons 17 cwt. 

170 tons of ballast 4 tons 8 cwt. 

Strain per square foot from dead load 12 tons 5 cwt. 

Strain per square foot from passing load . . 2 tons 17 cwt. 

Total strain per foot 15 tons 2 cwt. 



CEMENT8. 219 

After repeated transit, the load was left upon the 
"bridge all night, and the arch, npon examination, 
showed no signs of failure or distress under the severe 
strains to which it had been exposed. 

The Soluble Glass as Manure for Grapevines, 

By putting the dry silicate of soda at the roots of 
grapevines, with or without the addition of phosphate 
of lime, has by experiments proved of immense bene- 
fit to the thriving of the vines to a proper thickness, 
and the grapes of uncommon size. 

Soluble Glass a Substitute for Soap. 

A chemical compound is effected by the combina- 
tion of an alkali with silica, which possesses a greater 
affinity to the first than the acid of either grease or 
stearic and oleia acids have in coarser soap. On 
account of the soap which generally contains the 
caustic lime, that compound prepared by the admix- 
ture of soluble glass possesses less caustic properties, 
and acts therefore less injurious on the texture of cot- 
ton, linen and woolen fabrics. As examples of this 
property may serve the treatment of lyes with wool 
or silk, which are actually dissolved by the same, 
while the soluble glass removes but externally the 
adhering dirt without any injurious action. The 
slippery and adhesive consistency of soluble glass 
acts likewise beneficial in the easy washings and rins- 
ing with water of the impurities. 



220 CEMENTS. 

There are many advantages in its applications on 
wool, silk, cotton and leather; it is stronger than 
common soap, requires a less quantity, and either 
hard, soft, cold, or lukewarm water may be employed. 

The labor and saving of fuel is an advantageous 
economy ; it preserves also many colors, which are 
not fast, much better than common soap ; it resists, 
in fact, almost all colors. From one to four pounds 
liquid glass is sufficient for 100 pounds of water ; 
as that used for wool is quite sufficient for a 
menstruum, it is employed quite extensively in 
Europe for washing and fulling of wool, and it has 
been used long before the soluble glass was known 
by dissolving flints in caustic lye prepared from 
wood ashes. 

The Prussian Government has found it advisable, 
for the introduction of the soluble glass in the mili- 
tary and other royal institutions and prisons, and 
also for the paper manufacturers, and their extensive 
linen establishments ; and instituted experiments as 
to practicability of a general economical application. 

In the cotton mills it has proved a saving of 50 per 
cent by substituting it for starch and flour, which was 
so indispensable for fastening the colors ; and in 
England, thousands of pounds sterling have been 
economized by its application. In our late war the 
consumption of the soluble glass in that branch of 
industry of the United States was very extensive. 



CEMENTS. 221 

The soap manufacturer, who formerly did use rosin 
for an adulteration or admixture, the cost of which 
was formerly but two dollars, but rose to 25 and 
30 dollars per bbl. of 180 lbs., was obliged to resort 
to the use of soluble glass in its various forms either 
as liquid or jelly. 

Rosin is now again more employed than the sol- 
uble glass; not however for the reason that it is 
better as a sophisticator, but because the soap maker 
has an idea that the soap formed from rosin with fat 
suited better, and is more time saving ; he does not 
consider all the circumstances: such as the smell and 
touch produced in the handling or washing with 
rosin soap, and that the admixture of soluble glass is 
no adulteration, but an improvement, and that it is 
as economical as rosin soap. 

The Soluble Glass a Substitute for Glue. 

It has proved quite useful in applying the liquid 
glass for glueing wood and paper together, instead of 
the common glue, and it is sold in the trade as 
mucilage, and is applied on paste board instead of 
emery or corundum paper, used by cabinet makers and 
other mechanics for polishing. As a paste for book- 
binders instead of glue, starch or dexterine it has 
proved quite useful. Earthenware may be kept more 
durable by lining them with a weak solution. It is 
likewise used on leather, provided the same is not ex- 
posed to much bending. 



222 CEMENTS. 

The glazing or enamelling of culinary vessels, 
made either for iron or stone ware, the soluble glass 
is usefully applied in the following manner : — 

The silicate solution of soda and potash is mixed 
with thick lime water, to 100 parts of the silicate add 
1 part of lime water, made for 1 part caustic lime to 
6 parts of water. The mixture is then evaporated to 
dryness and reduced to fine powder. By dipping first 
the objects to be glazed in the liquid silica, the pow- 
der is then sifted over them ; when dry, the operation 
is repeated again ; when dry, the coating becomes so 
hard that it cannot be rubbed off by the hands ; they 
are then treated like other ware by putting them in 
a furnace, requiring however, not a very great heat. 

A similar process is to prepare a mass from 100 
parts powdered quartz, 80 parts pure potash, 10 parts 
saltpetre, and 20 parts slacked lime, which mixture 
is made into a thin paste with the liquid silicate, and 
then burnt. This glazing is very durable and resists 
both vegetable and mineral acids like common glass. 
It requires no great skill to execute the operation, 
and the expense to prepare such a glazing is but a 
trifle. 

Soluble Glass Application for Various Cements. 

Porcelain, Glass and Metals are fastened together 
when broken, either by the liquid or gelatinous sili- 
cate by the following method : Heat the object to 



CEMENTS. 223 

be fastened together to that of boiling water, and 
apply the soluble glass on both sides of the fracture,, 
press them together and leave them in a warm place 
for a fortnight, when they will be fit for use. Fluor- 
spar finely ground, black oxide of manganese, oxide of 
iron (crocus,) finely powdered soluble glass, and 
many more refractory substances are suitable articles 
to mix with the liquid silica for the various cements 
in use ; a cement for fastening iron in stone, glass or 
wood is recommended, consisting in 1 part prepared 
chalk, 1 part marble dust, and made plastic with the 
liquid silica, or 1 part powdered soluble glass, 2 parts 
powdered fluorspar made into a paste with the liquid y 
silica, and this is for pasting labels on glass bottles. 

Caseine or metamorphosed milk is also mixed with 
the liquid silica, and makes an excellent paste. 

Fireproof Cement is composed of the various 
oxides of iron, and formed into paste with the liquid 
silica. 

The Athens Marble Cement is composed of carbo- 
nate of lime, carbonate of magnesia and silica with 
oxide of iron, and made into a thin liquid and ap- 
plied to the stone, which, on drying, is permanently 
fastened to the surface, and protects it from smoke f 
dust, and atmospheric agents. 

Common and fire brick acquire great strength if 
the silicate of soda has been employed in the manu- 
facture, and become indestructible, they are then 



224 CEMENTS. 

particularly fit for baker ovens, wall and well founda- 
tions and furnace beds. 

Glazed paper for apothecarie's use, may likewise 
be prepared with the soluble glass. 

Metallic Cement is formed when a mixture of 
equal parts of oxide of zinc, per oxyde of manganese 
and litharge, and made up with liquid silica and 
marble dust, and applied between the metals to be 
cemented. 

An Impermeable Cement Resisting Steam. 

It is prepared by mixing six parts finely powdered 
blacklead, 3 parts slacked lime, and 8 parts of plaster 
of paris, made into consistency by the liquid silica. 

Zinc Cement for stopping cracks in metallic appa- 
ratus and other materials is made by mixing equal 
weights of zinc white and finly powdered soluble 
glass with a solution of chloride of zinc of the den- 
sity of 126 ; it sets rapidly and resists the action of 
most agents. The simple mixture of oxide of zinc 
with a solution of the chloride of zinc, has also been 
recommended. 

Cement for any foundation icall is made by mixing 
1 part of good slacked lime with 3 parts of fine sand, 
and f of its weight of finely powdered quick lime is 
added, and made into a paste with the liquid silica ; 
this mass becomes so hard in 4 days that a piece of 
sharp iron would not attack it. 



CEMENTS. 225 

The Gypsum and Clay Cement. 

This cement is very hard, and is prepared by an 
intimate mixture with liquid silica, after the gypsum 
has been calcined, and it is preferred to lime cement 
for the reason that by the action of lire, it becomes- 
reconverted into lime, which, when the waters from 
fire engines is brought to bear upon it, expands much 
and forces out the walls to the destruction of the 
walls. 

Hard Adhesive Cement. 

It consists in mixing 5 parts powdered clay, 2 parts 
iron fillings, and 1 part of black oxide of manganese, 
and \ part borax made into paste with liquid silica, 
when dry is very hard, and withstands water. Also 
a mixture of manganese and zinc white with plaster 
of paris forms a very hard cement, and has great 
adhesive capacity. 

Drain and Gaspipes for conducting to sewers 
and houses, may be made as permanent as iron pipes 
by using a hard cement consisting of hydraulic lime, 
clay and sand, mixed with fine powdered fluorspar 
and soluble glass, all made plastic by the liquid 
silica ; this mass when dry and burnt, will resist a 
pressure of 600 lbs. to the square inch, while iron 
pipes burst under a pressure of 400 lbs. to the square 
inch. 



226 CEMENTS. 

Cement for Closing Cracks in Stoves, &c. 

A useful cement for closing up cracks in stove plates, 
stove doors, etc., is according to a notice of the Scien- 
tific American, March 12th, 1870, prepared by mix- 
ing finely pulverized iron, such as can be procured at 
the druggists, with liquid water glass, to a thick paste, 
and then coating the cracks with it. The hotter 
the fire then becomes the more does the cement melt 
with its metallic ingredients, and the more completely 
will the crack become closed. 

Cement for a Cistern. 

Take 10 parts of Plaster of Paris. 

" 2 " Glauber Salts. 

" 4 " Clay. 

" 4 " Slacked Lime. 

Made in a plastic cement with the liquid silicate of 
soda, and before it hardens, add liquid chloride of 
calcium. 

For sweetening the water in cisterns, which is 
found to be hard, may be made soft by one gallon of 
silicate of soda in the cistern, and repeat the opera- 
tion onc3 a month. 

The best iron cement is composed of calcined plas- 
ter and iron filings, from each 10 parts, 4 parts oxide 
manganese, 2 parts slacked lime, made plastic with 
the liquid silicate of soda. 



CEMEXTS. 227 

The most refractory cement is formed from silica, 
asbestos, plumbago, and soapstone. These materials 
mixed in certain proportions and made plastic by 
the liquid silica, form a most valuable cement for 
locomotive journals and other lubricating purposes, 
for lining of steam boilers as well as coating, for fil- 
ling up airholes in iron castings. By the addition of 
peroxide of manganese, it may be much improved, 
and serve as a permanent paint, which is fire and 
waterproof. 

Besides the cements, such as the Portland, Roman, 
Keene's, Parion and Martin's, and those obtained from 
the Puzzuolanas and Trass, as obtained near Naples, 
and from the extinct volcanic districts, such as Viva- 
rais in Central France, at Brihl, near Andernach on 
the Rhine, and also near Edinburgh in Scotland, 
and the Rosendale, all of which when mixed with 
coal cinders, slags and scoria and wood ashes, con- 
tain more or less soluble alkali, and have a con- 
siderable effect in hastening the absorption of the 
moisture, and facilitating the setting of the lime 
and sand. There are slso the burnt clays or terra 
cotta, and are frequently used as artificial stone, but 
from their great and unequal contraction, and the 
facility with which they are acted on by frost, 
are rarely satisfactory, except treated with soluble 
glass as has been described. 

There are also many varieties of concrete now 



228 CEMENTS. 

manufactured in vast blocks and a perfectly solid 
mass, which replace now the accumulations of rub- 
bish and loosely aggregated stones, once thought 
sufficient for filling up intervals between walls of 
solid masonry, especially in piers, harbors, and other 
important works, and to which the name concrete has 
been given, and means a species of rough masonry, 
consisting of gravel or broken stone mixed with lime, 
the latter being slaked and immediately put in contact 
with the gravel. When lime is used that has pre- 
viously been worked into a paste, it passes by the 
name of Beton, and the Beton Coignet Building has 
of late been introduced into this country, and to a 
great extent substituted for brick and stone. 

Beton Building. 

Of all the compositions which in late days have 
been introduced as a substitute for brick or stone- 
work, there is not one that presents more attractions 
as a material than beton. But the use of it is limited 
to those localities where water-lime can be had at a 
reasonable price. For, although that admirable 
cement is about the only one of its component parts 
that is expensive, yet the proportion used makes the 
beton more costly than could be wished, notwith- 
standing its many merits as a building material. 
There need not be any stone or stone chips used in 
the making of beton. All that is required to make 



CEMENTS. 229 

a quick-setting and very durable material is, sand 
three parts ; water-lime, one part ; broken brick, six 
parts. The water-lime and sand should be well 
mixed together, dry. Then have as much water 
thrown on as will make a moderately stiff mass, when 
it is to be instantly transferred to the moulds, which 
are already in their positions on the walls, and the 
centre to be packed with the broken brick, which, 
being very porous, will receive the moist cement 
readily on its broken faces, and help to set the whole. 
The mode of proceeding to construct the courses is 
by means of moulds easily adjusted and taken apart. 
They are to be calculated so as to inclose a block of 
beton of the required thickness of the wall, and of, 
say, half again that thickness in length. Their 
height may be ten inches. Thus, if the wall be 
twelve inches, the block will be the same, and also 
eighteen inches long by ten inches high. 

We will proceed to describe the operation of build- 
ing as carried out in the construction of a beton house 
at Black Rock, near Buffalo, New York, some years 
ago. The lines being laid out, the basement was ex- 
cavated to a depth of six feet, and the trenches for 
the foundation walls dug out one foot and a half be- 
low the bottom of the basement. These trenches 
were two feet and a half wide, that is, three inches 
on each side wider than the basement wall above 
them. The basement was, therefore, dug just three 

10 



230 



CEMENTS. 



inches wider than the plan, all around, and this was 
done to leave room for the placing of the moulding- 
boxes with their rods. The bottom of the trenches 
was made level, and these were filled with concrete 
composed of gravel, six parts ; sand, four parts ; and 
quick-lime, one and a half part, with sufficient quan- 
tity of silicate of soda, so as to make the composition 
plastic. When this mass was well mixed and turned 
over three or four times, it was thrown into the tren- 
ches in layers or courses of, say, four inches in depth. 
Each course was spread over the whole of the founda- 
tion trenches, until they were all, including those of 
the foundations of cross-walls, filled. When the sur- 
face of the basement or cellar bottom was reached, 
then the whole area was gone over with a coat of 
gravel ; and over this was poured a creamy mixture 
of water-lime and sharp river sand, in equal propor- 
tions, until the whole was flush. This was done on 
Saturday, and on the following Monday the floor was 
hard enough to walk upon. The basement walls 
were now commenced in the manner here described. 
The lines of the walls were carefully laid out, and 
angle-moulds placed at each corner, with straight 
moulds set at equal distances all along. 

fK 




CEMEXTS. 231 

A corner mould and three or four straight moulds 
are sufficient to work with : but the greater the num- 
ber of moulds the more expeditiously the operation 
of building goes on. When all was ready, the corner 
moulds were filled first, and then the other moulds 
regularly in turn. When all were filled, the moulds 
were taken apart and set up at other points along the 
walls ; but sufficient time was given for the beton to 
become hard enough to admit of being uncovered. 
The walls being thus gone around, the next operation 
was to inclose the spaces between the beton blocks^ 
and this was done by using the sides of the moulds, 
without the ends, and holding them in place by the 
following means : Two pair of pieces of scantling, 
say two by three inches each, and two feet long, were 
set upright at each end of the side-boards, and bear- 
ing them against the beton blocks. At the middle 
of their length they were held by the rods and screws 
used in the moulds ; and their upper ends being kept 
apart by sticks of the necessary length, the boards 
were thus clutched and kept in place. These in- 
closed spaces were now up flush, in the same manner 
as the moulds, and, by packing and tamping, the con- 
nections were made so complete as to render the 
whole a uniform mass. As each course was in this 
manner completed, the moulds were laid for a new 
one, taking care to break joint, although no joint was 
visible, yet this precaution was taken to avoid any 



232 CEMENTS. 

continuous joint or point of imperfect connection. 
Where doors or windows occurred, the moulds were 
placed correspondingly, on either side of such open- 
ing ; for it may be observed that there is no neces- 
sity for the fixing in of the frames until the work is 
all sufficiently set. However, it is necessary to insert 
in these moulds, at doors and windows, at the ends 
which will form the jambs of such, pieces of scant- 
ling, called stops, say, four inches thick, and in 
width, sufficient to permit the future frame to rest 
five or six inches back from the outer face of the walL 
Of course, the frame can be set up and these jambs 
worked up to it, but it is more troublesome and will 
scarcely make as good a job. The window-sills and 
caps were provided for in like manner ; and there was 
a splay left in the window jambs, by means of angu- 
lar pieces being added to the above-mentioned stops, 
which gave the required mold to the beton. When 
the level of the ceiling was attained, the flooring 
joists were all set up in their places, and temporary 
bridgings of plank fixed between every pair, so as to 
hold the beton, which was thus continued up, making 
a compact bed for the joists, and effectually prevent- 
ing the lodgment of vermin. The short boards or 
pieces here used may be removed when the work is 
set, as they will be wanted again on the next floor. 
In the building we describe they were left in, but it 
is not at all necessary. 



CEMENTS. 233 

The joists being all flushed up with beton, the floor 
boards were nailed down and the beton again flushed 
up to the surface of the floor. The moulds were now 
placed for the walls of the principal story, which 
b>eing six inches less than those of the basement, the 
ends of the moulds were made in accordance with the 
new thickness, namely twelve inches, and the work 
went on as before, with the exception of the corners 
of the main walls, which were rounded by means of 
blocks of the necessary shape being set in the angle. 
This rounding off of the walls on the outer corners 
gives a very neat appearance, without adding to the 
cost. On the contrary, it economizes the material ; 
for the thickness at these corners, instead of being 
greater on the diagonal, is exactly the same as that of 
the straight walls throughout. In the manipulation 
of the beton for the walls of the superstructure, it was 
deemed advisable to pack the front of each mould with 
a purer or finer coat of cement than that used at the 
heart, or even at the back, so as to give one uniform 
face to the outside. This face was carefully troweled 
into the bed made for it in the mould by working 
"back the coarser beton in which the broken brick was 
packed. In the top of the first tier of blocks forming 
the course, an angle mould was laid along and 
pressed into the fine beton forming the outside face. 
And on the bottom of the next tier of moulds a cor- 
responding angle-mould was laid and the beton cast 



234 CEMENTS. 

firmly around it. And thus every course was treated* 
Tlie consequence was that the > cincture left on the 
removal of these moulds produced an effect on the 
exterior, remarkably like coursed masonry, the course 
lines being of the > shape, and about two inches 
wide and one inch and a half deep. Any other sec- 
tion of cincture can be moulded in to suit another de- 
sign of building. After each course was uncovered, 
these sunken mouldings were finished smooth by 
working a whole mould of the > shape along them, 
backward and forward. Perpendicular moulds of 
like shape might have been made to mark out each 
block, and no doubt would have much improved the 
appearance of the building. The sunken horizontal 
courses were carried all around the house and pro- 
duced a good effect. The next floor was flushed up 
at the joists precisely in the same manner as the first, 
or principal floor. The windows and doors were all 
Bet in and worked up to. But this, as was before ob- 
served, is not the better way. The sills and lintels 
were of oak, but the latter did not show on the out- 
side. It would be much better to have stone sills 
and lintels. The partition walls were six inches 
thick, and were cast in unbroken courses, with the 
exception of openings for doors. The door-cases 
were set in and worked up to. Blocks were nailed 
to the floor at the walls and partitions to receive the 
base-boards of the apartments, and these blocks were 



CEMENTS. 235 

covered up in the beton. In like manner, there were 
blocks inserted for nailing finishings of windows and 
doors to, and for holding the horizontal slats from 
which to hang pictures. The roof was a gabled one, 
of a fourth pitch ; but a Mansard would at this day- 
be a great improvement. The walls were skim- 
coated on the inside of the house, and the best rooms 
were hard finished. Nothing can be easier for the 
plasterer to make a truly workmanlike job with, for 
his material is sure to adhere to it. There is little 
more to add, save that the chimney -flues were all cast 
round by means of stove-pipes used as moulds, and 
left in. This is not a good plan, as the stove-pipe 
will corrode after a time, and it is very difficult, if 
not impossible, to remove it. It would be better to 
use a movable cylinder mould with a handle, and 
have the flue finished smooth in beton. The chimney- 
shafts can be very ornamentally finished with terra 
cotta caps. To those who can procure water-lime at 
anything like a reasonable price, we would strongly 
recommend beton as a particularly applicable mate- 
rial. It is warm in winter, cool in summer, and at 
all times dry and healthful. In mixing common 
lime with it — of course for economy's sake alone — it 
will be well to bear in mind that, while quicklime 
swells in slacking, say one-fourth, water-lime, on the 
contrary, shrinks about a fifth. By experiment on 
the limes to be used, exactness can be obtained. And 



236 ESSAYS RELATING TO THIS TREATISE. 

by thus calculating, the two may be, so to speak, 
dovetailed into each other. — Manufacturer and 
Builder. 

Essays Relating to this Treatise. 

The following essays on the origin as well as functions of car- 
bonic acid, limestones, alkalies, silica, etc., follow herewith in 
order to explain, in the first place, what a powerful influence car- 
bonic acid exercises in the application of soluble or water glass 
for all purposes of domestic economy, how carbonic acid acts in 
the sedimentary rocks, and whether derived directly from the 
atmosphere or from subterranean decomposition, produce the 
disintegration of carbonate of lime from siliceous substances. 

The sources of limestones from the ocean bed and coral reefs, 
and the subsequent formation of various limestone rocks, and 
application of the same for our purposes ; the origin of the alkalies 
as are employed in the manufacture of soluble glass. 

The silica in all its applications for domestic purposes, explain- 
ing the immense variety of forms as found in nature, and uses in 
the manufacture for soluble and every other species of glass, and 
forms an interesting guide for the production of plain and colored 
glass, and the green sand formation of New Jersey. 

I. Essay on Carbonic Acid. — By Dr. Lewis 
Feuciitwanger. 

" Carbonic acid, the pabulum of the organic and 
inorganic world." 

According to the ancient philosophers, the sim- 
ple bodies or elementary principles from which 
all the varieties of matter are composed, were but 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 237 

four, namely : fire, air, water and earth. This 
notion, after having for ages formed a part of 
the creed of the learned, has been completely ex- 
plained by the light of modern science, though it is 
not yet extinct among the vulgar. The alchemical 
writers of the middle ages added to these principles 
some others, as salt, sulphur and mercury, to which 
terms, however, they attached ideas very different 
from those that belong to them at present, and into 
the nature of which it is not necessary to inquire. 
Some of the alleged elements of the olden chemists 
are now known only to exist in imagination, and 
others are ascertained to be by no means simple sub- 
stances. Thus air is found to consist of two different 
elastic fluids or gaseous bodies, which may be separa- 
ted by various processes, and exhibited apart from 
each other. Water, also, has been ascertained to be 
a compound, which may be analyzed or decomposed 
so as to produce two distinct kinds of gases, which 
may be separately collected, and when again mixed 
together in proportions, they may be made to form 
water by their union. 

Other bodies formerly esteemed simple have yielded 
to the analytical processes of modern chemistry ; but 
.there is a certain number of substances which, either 
in the state in which they are presented to us by 
nature, or as they are procured in various operations 
by art, have resisted all attempts at further decompo* 



238 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

sition, and which, therefore, as before stated, must 
be regarded as simple substances. Their number is 
not very great, amounting to about sixty-three, and 
it is not unlikely that the future researches of chem- 
ists may demonstrate some of these bodies to be com- 
pounds, as we have the latest example in the discov- 
ery of Graham, who converted the hydrogen from its 
gaseous form into a metal hydrogenium. At the 
same time it is probable that additions may be made 
to the class of elementary substances in consequence 
of future discoveries, several of those now admitted 
into this class having become known to us but very 
recently. 

Some of those elementary bodies are widely and 
abundantly disposed throughout the three kingdoms 
of nature, either alone or in a state of composition, 
while tliose appear to be of very rare occurrence, or 
at least, they have hitherto been met with only in 
small quantities and in a few situations. The whole 
of the elementary substances may be arranged in two 
divisions : the first comprehending those which are 
not of a metallic nature, and those which are regard- 
ed as metals, although many exhibit properties differ- 
ing considerably from those, which are well defined 
as such, like gold, silver, mercury, iron, lead, &c. 
The accompanying table shows all the elements. The 
non-metals are in large capitals, and the metals in 
small type : 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 



239 



Name. 



Discoverer. 



Date 



Aluminium . 
Antimony.. 
Arsenic 



Barium 

Bismuth.. 

Boron 

Bromine . , 
Cadmium. 
Caesium . . , 
Calcium . . , 
Carbon.., 



Cerium 

Chlorine. . 
Chromium . 

Cobalt 

Copper 

Didymium . 

Erbium 

Fluorine . , 



Glucinum. 



Gold 

Hydrogen 

Hydrogenium \ 
(metallic) ) 

Indium 

Iodine 

Iridium 

Iron 

Lanthanum 

Lead 

Lithiu m 



Mercury 

Magnesium 

Manganese 

Molybdenum. .. 

Kickel 

Niobium 

Nitrogen 

Osmium 

Oxygen 

Palladium 

Phosphorus 

Pelopium 

Platinum 

Potassium 

Rhodium 

Rubidium 

Ruthenium. ... 

Selenium 

Silver 

Silicon 

Sodium 

Strontium 

Sulphur 



Wcehler, Germany 

Basil Valentine 

Paracelsus knew it in XVI. cen- 
tury; George Brandt, Sweden. .. 

Sir H. Davy, England 

Agricola 

Sir H. Davy, England 

Ballard, France 

Stromeyer 

Bunsen" 

Sir II, Davy 

Lavoisier established the diamond 
as carbon ." 

Hisinger, Sweden 

Scheele, Sweden 

Yauquelin. France 

Brandt, Sweden 

Known by the ancients 

Mosander 



Sheele investigated and discovered, 
but never separated it 

Oxide, by Yauquelin, 1797; metal 
by Woehler : 

Known by the ancients 

As gas, by Cavendish, England 

Graham 



Reich found in zinc ore 

Court oise, France 

Tenant 

Known from early time 

Mosander 

Known by the ancients 

Oxide, by Arfvedson, Sweden, 1813 : 

metal by Brai d 

Known to the ancients 

Bussy, France 

Gahn , Sweden 

Sheele, Sweden 

Bergman, Sweden 

Hatchett 

Dr. Rutherford, Scotland 

Tenant 

Dr. Priestly, England 

Dr. Wollaston, England 

Brandt, Hamburg 

H. Rose 

Charles Wood, Jamaica 

Sir II. Davy, England 

Dr. Wollaston, England 

Bnnsen 

Clauss 

Berzelius, Sweden 

Known to the ancients 

Berzelius, Sweden 

Sir H.Davy 

SirH. Davy 

Natural product 



1S28 
1450 

1733 
1808 
1530 
1807 
1836 
1817 
1861 
1S08 

1775 
1804 
1774 
1797 
1733 

1S43 



1828 

1766 

1869 

1861 
1-01 
1803 

1839 



1820 

1820 
1774 
17S2 
1775 

1772 
1803 
1774 
1803 
1669 
1S46 
1741 
1-07 
1804 
1861 

1818 

1824 
1807 
1808 



Al 

Sb 

As 

Ba 

Bi 

B 

Br 

Cd 

Cs 

Ca 

C 

Ce 

CI 

Cr 

Co 

Cu 

D 

E 



Gl 
Au 
H 



In 

I 

Ir 

Fe 

La 

Pb 

Li 
Us 
MfE 

Mn 

Mo 

Ni 

Nb 

N 

Os 

O 

Pa 

P 

Pt 
K 

Rh 
Rb 
Ru 
Se 
Ag 
Si 

Sr 

S 



27.4 
122 

75 
137 
,210 

11 

80 
112 
133 

40 

12 
92 
35.5 

52.2 
58.7 
63.5 
95 
112.6 

19 

9.3 

|197 
1 



35.91 
127 
198 

56 

92 
207 



24 

55 

96 
i 5S.7 

94 

14 
199.2 

1G 
106.6 

31 



2.6 
6.7 

3.7 

9.7 

1.47 

5.54 



1.58 

3.5 

.2454 

7.7 
8.9 



1.060 

12. 
.69 

1.708 

4.95 
7.79 

11.4 

59 
13.5 
1.74 

7. 
8.6 



.972 



197.5 


21. 


39.1 


8& 


104.4 


11. 


85.4 




104.4 




79.5 


4.3 


108 


10.4 


28 


2.49 


23 


.15 


87.5 


2.53 


32 


2.0 



21. 



11.3 
2.0 



240 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 



Name. 


Discoverer. 


Date. 


Symbol. 


< 


M 

O 

CO 


Tantalium ^ 
(Columbium) j 
Tellurium . . , 


Hatchet and Eckeberge, 1801 ; re- 
duced br Berzelius 


1824 
1797 
1861 

1796 
1781 
17S9 
1830 
1794 
1721 
1824 


Ta 
Te 
Tl 
Th 
Sn 
Ti 
W 

u 

Y 
Y 
Zn 
Zr 


152 

123 

203 

115.7 

118 
50 

164 

120 
51.3 
18.6 
65.2 
89.6 




Klaproth, Berlin 


6.2 


Thallium 


Crookea and Lane 




Thorium 


Berzelius, Sweden 




Tin 


Known b v the ancients 


7.29 


Tintanium 


Vauquelin 


4.3 


Tungsten 

Uranium. . . 


M. M. D'Elhuyard, Spain 

Klaproth, Berlin 


17.5 


Vanadium 

Yttrium 


Sefstrom, Berzelius, and Del Bio. . . 
Gadolin, Sweden 




Zinc 


Henkel 


6.9 


Zirconium 


Berzelius, Sweden 


4.3 









Carbon^ one of these elementary bodies, is the 
most remarkable substance in nature, and enters 
largely into the composition of most substances be- 
longing to the animal and vegetable kingdom, and 
forms also the basis of many of the combustible mine- 
rals, as bitumen, coal, plumbago, amber. In the 
form of charcoal, procured by charring or distilling 
without the access of air, wood, animal, and some 
other substances, carbon is obtained in a separate 
state or merely intermixed with small portions of 
earths or salts. The charcoal used in the various 
arts and manufactures is commonly prepared on an 
extensive scale by the imperfect combustion of wood, 
built up in large piles and covered with turf, or by 
the distillation of wood in cast-iron cylinders. Lamp- 
black is also chiefly composed of charcoal, consisting 
of soot collected from the combustion of the refuse 
resin obtained in making turpentine. Ivory black is 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 241 

another carbonaceous substance, which results from 
the burning of bones in close vessels. Coke is chiefly 
composed of charcoal, arising from the distillation of 
coal, as in the coal gas manufactories. Pure carbon 
is, however, represented in the diamond. Chemical 
investigation has proved that the diamond, when ex- 
posed to a very high temperature, and especially if 
confined in oxygen gas, will burn like charcoal and 
exhibiting the same product. This splendid gem, in 
its natural state, is composed of octahedral crystals, 
and Sir Isaac Newton ascertained from observing, 
that it was possessed of high refractive powers and 
an inflamable substance. It is brittle, but appears to 
be harder than any other substance. Hence the 
powder of the diamond is used for cutting and polish- 
ing the hardest gems, and the diamond itself, as the 
most ornamental article of jewelry. How diamond 
was formed is a matter of enquiry. It certainly 
could not have been produced at a high temperature, 
because when strongly heated, apart of the air or 
oxygen, the diamond swells up, and is converted into 
a black mass resembling coke. 

Carbon, as commonly procured by distilling wood, 
is a good conductor of electricity, though a bad con- 
ductor of heat. It remains unchanged by air or 
water at common temperature, but when highly 
heated readily burns in oxygen gas or common air. 

It has the property of destroying the smell and 



242 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

taste of many animal and vegetable substances, and 
it powerfully resists putrefaction ; so that tainted 
meat, if covered with new burnt charcoal for a few 
hours, becomes perfectly sweet. The colors of vege- 
table substances are also effected by charcoal ; hence 
it is sometimes added to port wine for the purpose of 
giving it a tawny hue. Vinegar boiled with it be- 
comes colorl'ess, and it is largely used in refining 
sugar, particularly the animal charcoal. Freshly 
prepared charcoal largely absorbs various gases. 
This property, however, depends on the texture of 
the charcoal, and the difierent kinds absorb, in vari- 
' ous proportions, aqueous vapors contained in the air. 
Carbon unites with oxygen to form three or more 
compounds, an oxide and various acids. The car- 
bonic oxide is a gaseous body, and was discovered by 
Dr. Priestley, and this is produced from the decom- 
position of the compounds containing carbonic acid, 
as by the heating in an iron retort a mixture of chalk 
and charcoal, or of equal weights of chalk and iron 
or iron filings. The gas resulting from either of 
these operations may be collected in a jar inverted 
and filled with water, and then purified by agitating 
it with lime water. It is destitute of color and taste 
and has a disagreeable smell, and is highly injurious 
to animals, producing giddiness and fainting if re- 
spired when mixed with atmospheric airs. We have 
many instances where many families were found suf- 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 243 

focated in the morning, the cause being that they had 
a coal fire burning, in close apartments, before retir- 
ing to bed. 

Carbonic acid, or called fixed air, — It is obtained 
when the carbonic oxide is mixed with half its vol- 
ume of oxygen, and exposed in a detonating tube 
to the electric spark, when an explosion takes place,, 
and carbonic acid is formed equal in bulk to the car- 
bonic oxide. It is a compound gas, and is formed 
both by art and nature in a variety of processes. An 
abundant production of this gas takes place in the 
combustion of animal and vegetable substances in 
general ; but the most interesting example of the for- 
mation of carbonic acid occurs when the diamond is- 
intensely heated in common air or oxygen gas. This 
extremely dense and apparently permanent substance 
under these circumstances becomes wholly converted 
into carbonic acid, a result which plainly demon- 
strates it to consist of carbon alone. Carbonic acid, 
when wanted for the purpose of experiment, may, 
however, be most readily obtained by decomposing 
the combinations of this acid with alkalies or earths. 
Thus chalk or marble, when dropped in small frag- 
ments into dilute sulphuric or hydrochloric acids, 
will give out abundance of this gas, which may be 
collected over water ; they, however, absorb a large 
portion of it, even at common pressures and tempera- 
tures. 



2±4 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

Carbonic acid gas is destitute of color or smell, but 
like other acids, it lias a sour taste. It is mucli 
heavier than common air, and is uninflammable, ex- 
tinguishing burning bodies which are plunged into it. 
Owing to its great specific gravity, it may be poured 
from one vessel to another, like a liquid, and will re- 
main for some time at the bottom of an open jar with- 
out mixing with the atmospheric air above it. It is 
poisonous to animals, and cannot be breathed with- 
out the utmost danger. The famous Poison Valley 
in the Island of Java, has been visited by travelers, 
who relate that they took with them two dogs and 
some fowls to try experiments in the poisonous val- 
ley. When arriving at the foot of the mountain, and 
when within a few yards of the valley, they experi- 
enced a strong, nauseous, suffocating smell. The 
valley is about half a mile in circumference, and a 
depth of 30-35 feet, flat bottom, and no vegetation, 
strewed with some large sized stones, and the whole 
covered with the skeletons of human beings, tigers, 
pigs, deer, peacocks, and all sorts of birds. Did not 
perceive any vapors or any opening in the ground, 
which appeared to be of a hard, sandy substance. 
They descended, after lighting a cigar, and assisted 
by a bamboo, within eighteen feet of the bottom, 
where they did not experience any difficulty in 
breathing, nor did any offensive smell annoy them. 
Thev then fastened a dog to the end of a bamboo, 



ESSAY OX CAEBOXIC ACID. 245 

and after the lapse of fourteen seconds he fell on his 
back ; did not move his limbs, but continued to 
breathe eighteen minutes. Another one was sent in, 
and he fell in ten minutes on his face, and continued 
to breathe for seven minutes longer. A fowl was 
then tried, which died in one minute and a half. On 
the opposite side, near a large stone, was the skeleton 
of a human being, who must have perished on his 
back with the right hand under his head. 

It is for this reason that the proportion of this gas 
contained in the air is so very small. Were this 
proportion much greater than it is, animals, as they 
are now constituted, could not breathe the air with- 
out much injury. On the other hand, that growing 
plants may be able to obtain a sufficient large and 
rapid supply of carbonic acid from a gaseous mixture 
which contains so little, they are made to hang out 
their many waving leaves into the atmosphere. Over 
the surface of these leaves are sprinkled countless 
pores or mouths, which are continually employed in 
separating and drinking in carbonic acid gas. The 
millions of leaves which a single tree spreads out, and 
the constant renewal of the morning air in which 
they are suspended, enables the living plant to draw 
an abundant supply for all its wants from an atmos- 
phere already adjusted to the constitution of living 
animals. 

(A common lilac tree, with a million of leaves, has 



246 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

about 400,000,000 of pores or mouths at work suck- 
ing in carbonic acid ; and on a single oak tree as 
many as 7,000,000 of leaves have been counted.) 

This constant action of the leaves of plants is one 
of the natural agencies by which the proportion of 
carbonic acid in the lower regions of the atmosphere 
is rendered less than it is in the higher regions. 

As water readily takes up this gas, so it may be 
made by pressure to absorb a large quantity of it, so 
is the soda water of the shops, and such is also found 
in the bowels of the earth, as the mineral springs of all 
countries which contain also small quantities of saline 
matters. 

Carbonic acid has been reduced from a state of gas 
into that of liquid by compression, Faraday obtained 
it in this form, by disengaging it from carbonate of 
ammonia by means of sulphuric acid in a glass tube 
hermetically sealed, one end of which was immersed 
in a freezing mixture, and the pressure under which 
the fluid was formed was estimated to be equal to 
36 atmospheres. 

Carbonic acid may be decomposed by the action of 
the metal potassium, which having a stronger attrac- 
tion for oxygen than the carbon has, when heated 
in carbonic acid, it forms with great splendor, 
charcoal is deposited and an oxide of potassium is 
formed. It may also be decomposed by hydrogen 
and other bodies. 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 24T 

It is one-half heavier than commou air. A con- 
stituent of our atmosphere, which is known to con- 
sist, in 100 gallons, of 79 gallons of nitrogen and 21 
gallons of oxygen, while the carbonic acid is in ver;y 
small proportion. 

At ordinary elevations, there are only about two 
gallons of carbonic acid gas in 5,000 gallons of air, or 
1-2500 part of the whole. It increases, however, a& 
we ascend, so that at. heights of 8,000 or 10,000 feet T 
the proportion of carbonic acid is nearly doubled. 
Even this increased quantity is very small, and yet 
its presence is essential to the existence of vegetable 
life on the surface of the earth. This dependance ap- 
pears more striking the more precise our ideas be- 
come as to the absolute quantity of the carbonic acid 
which the entire air contains. The whole weight of 
the atmosphere is about fifteen pounds to the square 
inch, and at this the carbonic forms somewhat less 
than 120 grains, containing about 33 grains of car- 
bon. Notwithstanding plants are continually suck- 
ing in this gas by their leaves, and the operation 
goes on so rapidly, that were the entire surface of 
the earth dry land, and under cultivation, crops as 
we generally reap from it, would contract and fix the 
whole of the carbon in the form of vegetable matters 
in the short space of twenty-two years. Were this to 
happen, vegetation would cease. Such a catastrophe 
is prevented by the constant restoration of carbonic 



248 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

acid to the air through the increasing operation of 
preservation causes, which may be summed up under 
the following heads : 

1. The trees of the forest yearly shed their leaves, 
and, in some countries, their bark. Througli the in- 
fluence of the weather, these waste portions decay 
and disappear, restoring again to the atmosphere a 
portion of the same carbon which the living tree had 
previously detracted from it during the period of 
their growth. The yearly ripening herbage, also, 
and every plant that naturally withers on plain or 
hill, the grass of the burning prairie, and the timber 
of inflamed forests, with all that man consumes for 
fuel and burns for other uses, every form of vegetable 
matter, in short, when exposed to the action of air or 
fire, returns more or less quickly to the state of car- 
bonic acid, and disappears in the invisible atmos- 
phere. Thus what is yearly withdrawn from the air 
by living plants is so far restored again by those 
which naturally perish, or which are destroyed by 
the intervention of man. 

2. But man himself and other animals assist in the 
same chemical conversion. They consume vegetable 
food with the same final result as when it perishes by 
natural decay or is destroyed by the agency of fire. 
It is conveyed into the stomach in the form in which 
the plant yields it. The green herb, the perfect seed, 
and the ripe fruit are eaten and digested. Then 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 249 

forthwith they are breathed out again from the lungs 
and skin in the form of carbonic acid and wateiv 
Let us follow the operation more closely. 

The leaf of the living plant sucks in carbonic acid 
from the air, and gives off the oxygen contained in 
this gas. It retains only the carbon. The roots 
drink in water from the soil, and out of this carbon 
and water, the plant forms starch, sugar, and 
other substances. The animal introduces this starch 
sugar into its stomach, and draws in oxygen 
from the atmosphere by its lungs. With these mate- 
rials it undoes the previous labor of the living plant,, 
delivering back again from the lungs and the skin 
both the starch and the oxygen in the form of car- 
bonic acid and water. The circle begins with car- 
bonic acid and water, and ends with the same sub- 
stances, the same materials. The same carbon, for 
example, circulates over and over again, now float- 
ing in the invisible air, now forming the substance of 
the growing plant, now of the moving animal, and 
now again dissolving into the air, ready to begin 
anew the same endless revolution. It forms part of 
a vegetable to-day, it may be built into the body of 
a man to-morrow, and a week hence it may have 
passed through another plant into another animal. 
What is mine this week is yours the next. There is, 
in truth, no private property in ever-moving matters, 

3. Yet all the carbonic acid which is removed from 



250 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID, 

the air by the agency of plants is not immediately 
restored by the circulation above described. Two 
larger wheels revolve to make up the deficiency. 

•A. It has been shown that when plants die and 
decay, are burned in the air, or are eaten by animals, 
the carbon they contain is delivered back again to 
the atmosphere in the form of carbonic acid. But all 
the plants produced yearly over the whole earth are 
not so resolved into gaseous substances in any given 
time. In all parts of the world, and during all time, 
some portions of vegetable matter have escaped this 
total destruction, and have been buried beneath the 
surface of the earth to be preserved in the solid form 
for an indefinite period. With such comparatively 
indestructible forms of vegetable matters we are fami- 
liar, in the peat bogs of Scotland and Ireland, some- 
times from 50 to 100 feet deep, and in the submarine 
forests which are seen in so many parts of our inland 
shores. We are still better acquainted with them, 
however, in the vast deposits of coal which a kind 
Providence long ago brought together and covered 
up. What is and has been thus collected and gradu- 
ally buried would necessarily cause a constant dimi- 
nution in the small quantity of carbonic acid con- 
tained in the air were there no natural means in 
operation for making up the yearly loss. The means 
we are most familiar with for repairing this loss are 
those which man himself brings into operation. At 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 251 

a certain period in his history, half-civilized man dis- 
covered the use of coal. At a more advanced period, 
he found out how to dig deep and hollow out mines 
in search of it ; and at a still later period, how to em- 
ploy it for a thousand beneficial purposes. In burn- 
ing coal, we cause its carbon to unite with the oxygen 
of the air, and to disappear in the state of carbonic 
acid. 

We restore it to the atmosphere again in the state 
in which it existed there, perhaps, a million of years 
ago, when it was sucked in by the growing plants, 
and, in the form of vegetable matter, afterwards 
buried beneath the earth's surface. In raising and 
consuming coal, therefore, we are, to a certain extent, 
undoing and counteracting the yearly lessening of 
the carbon in the air, which appears to come from 
the yearly covering up of a portion of vegetable mat- 
ter. The 200,000,000 tons of coal which are now 
yearly consumed throughout the globe, produce about 
600,000,000 of tons of carbonic acid. How far this 
quantity serves to compensate for what is constantly 
buried up again, it is impossible to estimate. It 
must be acknowledged, however, that the coal fires 
we burn are an important subsidiary agent in pro- 
moting the circulation of carbon on the globe. 

5. Again, within the bosom of the great seas tiny 
insects are at work, upon which nature has imposed, 
in addition to the search for food and the care of 



252 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

their offspring, the perpetual labor of building new 
houses. The common shell-fish of our coasts toil con- 
tinually for defence as well as for shelter, repairing, 
enlarging and renewing their own dwelling places ; 
. and as they die, each drops its shell as a feeble con- 
tribution to the beds of shelly limestone, which are 
everywhere forming at the bottom of our deep seas* 
In more southern waters, again, still humbler insects 
build up massive coral walls, thousands of miles in 
extent, which now skirting along coast lines, and 
now encircling solitarv islands, bid defiance to the 
angriest storms. And then, too, as they die, genera- 
tion after generation, leave in rocky beds of coralline 
limestone an imperishable memorial of their exhaust- 
less labors. These rocks contain, chained down in 
a seemingly everlasting imprisonment, two-fifths of 
their weight of carbonic acid. This has been all 
withdrawn, either directly or indirectly, from the at- 
mosphere, and thus, through the rock, forming living 
things it contains, the sea must ever be drinking in 
and storing up the carbonic acid of the air. 

The same process has been going on almost con- 
tinuously since the world began. Vast coral reefs- 
lie buried beneath our beds of coal and mountains of 
thick ribbed shelly limestone have been lifted from 
ancient seas before these other reefs were formed. 
The labours of marine animals, therefore, like the 
burying of vegetable matter must throughout all 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 253 

time liave been causing a daily lessening of the ab- 
solute quantity of carbonic acid in the atmosphere, 
which some other natural operation has meanwhile 
been making compensation for this constant removal. 
But the earth herself breathes for this purpose. From 
cracks and fissures, which occur in vast numbers over 
the surface of the earth, carbonic acid issues in large 
quantities, sometimes alone and sometimes along with 
springing waters, and daily mingles itself with the 
ambient air. It sparkles in the springs of Carlsbad 
and Selzer, rushes as if from subterranean bellows 
on the table land of Paderborn, astonishes travellers 
in the Grotto del cane, interests the geologist in the 
caves of Pyrmont and among the old caves of the 
Eifel and is terrible to man and beast in the fatal 
" Valley of Death", the most wonderful of the wonders 
of Java, and besides, it doubtless issues still more 
abundantly from the unknown bottom of the expand- 
ed waters which occupy so large a proportion of the 
surface of the globe. From these many sources, con- 
tinually flowing into the sea, carbonic acid is and has 
been daily supplied in place of that, which is daily 
withdrawn to be buried in the solid limestones of the 
globe. Did we know after what lapse of time the 
earth would- again breathe out what is thus daily en- 
tombed, we should be able to express in words how 
long this slovely revolving secular wheel requires 
fully to perform one of its immense gyrations. 

11 



254 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

Carbonic acid gas rises from the earth in an elastic 
form, or assumes many successive varieties of plant and 
animal forms, is finally buried in the earth again in a 
state of blackened fossil plants or beds of solid lime- 
stone. 

Carbonic acid, as has already been stated, is very 
plentifully disengaged from springs in almost all 
countries. (The writer drank, in California, in a 
fissure of the celebrated marble quarry at Suisan 
City, 1,000 feet above the level, ten cups of water, 
in which the carbonic acid gas was so abundant and 
free that the water was unable to take up any more.) 
It is, however, particularly abundant near active or 
extinct volcanoes. This elastic fluid has the property 
of decomposing many of the hardest rocks with which 
it comes in contact, particularly that numerous class 
in the composition of which felspar is an ingredient. It 
renders the oxide of iron soluble in water, and con- 
tributes to the solution of calcareous matter. In vol- 
canic districts these gaseous emanations are not con- 
fined to springs, but rise up in the state of pure gas 
from the soil in various places, as already observed 
in the Grotto del Cane, near Naples, and the prodi- 
gious quantities now annually disengaging from many 
parts of the Limagna d'Auvergne, where it appears 
to have been developed in equal quantity from time 
immemorial. As the acid is invisible, it is not ob- 
served except an excavation be made, wherein it im- 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 255 

mediately accumulates, so that it will extinguish a 
candle. There are some springs in this district where 
the water is seen bubbling and boiling up with much 
noise in consequence of the abundant disengagement 
of this gas. The whole vegetation is affected, and 
many trees, such as walnut, flourish more luxuriantly 
than they would otherwise do in the same soil and 
climate, the leaves no doubt absorbing the carbonic 
acid. It is found in springs rising through the 
granite near Claremont, as well as in the tertiary lime- 
stone of the Limagne. 

Near Claremont, a rock belonging to the gneiss for- 
mation in which lead mines are worked, has been 
found to be quite saturated with carbonic acid gas, 
which is constantly disengaged. The carbonates of 
iron, lime and manganese are so dissolved that the 
rock is rendered soft and the quartz alone remains 
unattacked. Not far off is the small volcanic cone 
of Chaluzet, which once broke up through the gneiss 
and sent forth a lava stream. 

The effect of carbonic acid as a chemical agent, 
both as commonly present in atmospheric air and as 
more abundantly occurring in such localities as those 
above described, must depend on the nature of the 
rocks and other bodies with which it may come in 
contact. It may thus cause the decomposition of 
granite, gneiss, and other feldpathic and micaceous 
substances by combining with the potash, soda and 



256 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

lithia which enter into their constitution. On the 
contrary, when it encounters lime or magnesia it 
may contribute to the production of new rocks. 

The disintegration of granite is a striking feature 
of large districts in Auvergne, especially in the neigh- 
borhood of Claremont. Dolomieu called this decay 
" la malady du granite," and the rock may with pro- 
priety be said to have the rot, for it crumbles to 
pieces in the hand. The phonomenon may, without 
doubt, be ascribed to the continual disengagement of 
carbonic acid gas from numerous fissures. The 
chemical action of carbonic acid, as it exists in the 
usual state of the atmosphere near the earth's sur- 
face, though much more gradual, and, therefore, less 
noticed than were it copiously evolved from the 
water or soil as in volcanic countries, is yet suffici- 
ently powerful to produce a manifest effect on the 
structure of large masses of granite and rocks of 
analogous composition. In the western parts of 
Great Britain, where primitive formations prevail, 
granite masses frequently occur, which, from their 
peculiar forms, received the celto Cymric appellations 
af lagon, talmon and kistoaers, and were by the an- 
tiquarians long regarded as works of art of Druidical 
origin; but there rocking stones, rock basins, cheese- 
rings, and altars are now generally admitted to be 
blocks of granite which have acquired their respective 
forms in consequence of superficial decomposition or 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 257 

disintegration. Devonshire is the locality for these 
odd figures, which, Dela Beche remarked, looked 
more like the remains of some huge building or 
battlement than the effect of cleavage and decompo- 
sition, which it is. 

Granite is not generally regarded as a stratified 
rock, like gneiss and mica slate ; but it is a fact well 
known to the workmen who are employed in quarry- 
ing and cutting it, that it has what they term a grain, 
or that it will split in one or more directions more 
oasily than in others. This, doubtless, is owing to 
the arrangement of the mineral bodies of which it is 
composed, and especially the feldspar, the decompo- 
sition of which mast essentially aid the process of 
disintegration, and determine in a great degree the 
direction in which it takes place. 

The protracted action of atmospheric air, and also 
of water, appear to act jointly as a destructive and 
formative or constructive power ; likewise the more 
rapid and violent operation of streams and torrents 
assist in dissolving and wearing away solid surfaces 
in the situation, and depositing beds of transported 
matter in another ; and the detritus of rocks and of 
organic bodies have been removed by the agency of 
water from the higher parts of a country, and serving 
to form new tracts of land. Such catastrophas are 
common to most countries, and if a rock so detached 
or weathered be limestone, there is not unfrequently 



258 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

a reconsolidation of the parts by means of calcareous 
matter deposited by the water that percolates through 
the fragments, and which dissolves a portion of them. 
At Nice, the fractured surface thus reunited is so 
hard, that if it occur on a line of road, it must be 
blasted by gunpowder for removal. The same recon- 
solidation gives ample example upon the limestone 
hills of Jamaica, and at the cliffs of Milk river at 
that place. 

The feldpar contained in granite is often easily de- 
composed, and when this is effected, the surface fre- 
quently presents a quartzose gravel. D'Aubuisson 
mentions that in a hollow way which had been only 
six years blasted through granite, the rock was en- 
tirely decomposed to the depth of three inches, and 
the granite country of Auvergne and Eastern 
Pyrenees, felspar is frequently so much decomposed 
that the traveller may imagine himself on large 
tracts of gravel. The most striking example of the 
detrition of solid rock by the agency of water is ex- 
hibited at the Falls of Niagara, The water at these 
falls is divided by a small island, which separates 
the river into two cataracts, one of which is 600 
yards, and the other 750 yards wide. The height of 
the fall is from 150 to 160 feet. It is estimated that 
670,000 tons of water are dashed with inconceivable 
force against the bottom, wearing down the adjacent 
rocks. Since the banks of the cataract were in- 



ESSAY OX CARBONIC ACID. 259 

habited by Europeans, they have observed that it is 
progressively shortening the distance of the falls from 
Lake Erie. When it has worn down the intervening 
calcareous rocks, the npper lake will become dry 
land, and form one extensive plain or valley, sur- 
rounded by rising ground, and watered by a river or 
small lake, which will occupy the lowest part. In 
this plain, future geologists may trace successive 
strata of fresh water formation covering the subjacent 
ancient limestone. The gradual deposition of minute 
earthy particles, or the more rapid subsidence of 
mud from sudden inundations, will form distinct beds 
in which will be found the remains of fresh water 
fish, vegetables and quadrupeds. Prof. Henry says : 
" The descent of the country from Lake Erie to On- 
tario is principally by a step, not at the falls, but at 
Lewistown, several miles below. In reviewing the 
position of the Falls, and the features of the country 
around, it is impossible not to be impressed with the 
idea that this oreat natural race-wav has been formed 
by the continued action of the irresistable current of 
the Niagara, and that the falls, beginning at Lewis- 
ton, have, in the course of ages, worn back the rocky 
strata to their present site. The deep chasm through 
which the Xiagara passes below the falls is nearly a 
mile wide, with almost perfect mutual sides. The 
bed of the river below the falls is strewed with huge 
fragments of rocks hurled down by the cataract. 



260 ESSAY OX CARBONIC ACID. 

The retrogration of the waterfall, owing to the de- 
struction of the surface over which it takes its course, 
is said to have amounted to nearly fifty yards during 
the last forty years. If the excavation always pro- 
ceeded at the same rate, it must have required about 
10,000 years for the formation of the whole ravine ; 
and it would take up more than 30,000 years from 
the present time before the channel would be worn 
backward to Lake Erie ; but if it retroceded 1 inch 
a year, which would make 8f feet a century, 380,000 
years." 

The great gorge of the Colorado, which is 300 
miles long and 3-6000 feet deep, and hundreds of 
feet of the depth being much of the distance through 
granite, has probably taken the same length of time 
as the Niagara retrocession, and at the close of the 
mesozoic period or reptilian age, which was the era 
of the culmination and incipient decline of two great 
types in the animal kingdom, the reptilian and mol- 
luscan, and remarkable as the era of the first 
mamals, birds and fishes. 

Before proceeding further of the functions of car- 
bonic acid in the inorganic world, let us make a few 
remarks respecting the distinctions between animals 
and plants, in order to show how near the organic 
bodies are related to the inorganic, and that carbonic 
acid may probably have an important agency in this 
all important work. Since the discovery that the 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 261 

-spores (or seed cells) of some algae have locomotion 
like animalcules, and that there are unicellular loco- 
motive plants (the diatoms, etc.) Some have thought 
that the two kingdoms of life were blended together 
through their inferior species. But the fact is that 
they are diverse throughout ; the opposite but mutu- 
ally dependent sides or parts of one system of life. 
The following are some of their distinctions : 

1. Plants excrete oxygen, a gas essential to animal 
life ; animals excrete, in respiration, carbonic acid, a 
gas essential to vegetable life. 

2. Plants take inorganic material as food and turn 
it into organic ; animals take this organic material 
thus prepared (plants) or other organic materials 
made from it (animals), finding no nutriment in in- 
organic matter. 

3. Plants passing from the unicellular state by 
growth lose in power, becoming usually fixed ; ani- 
mals, in the same change or in development from a 
germ, increase in power, augmenting in muscular 
force ; and also in the case of species above the low- 
est grade in nervous force, like an ant is a one ant- 
power, a horse a one horse-power, whence an animal 
is a self-propogating piece of enginery, of various 
power, according to the species. 

4. The vegetable kingdom is a provision for the 
storing away or magazining of force for the animal 
kingdom. This force is acquired through the sun's 



262 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

influence or forces acting on the plant, and so pro- 
moting growth. That of starch, vegetable fibre and 
sugar is a state of concentrated or accumulated force,, 
and there is also a magazining of force in a still more 
concentrated or condensed state. There are thus five 
states of stored force in nature — three in inorganic,, 
the solid, liquid and gaseous / and two in organic, 
the vegetable and animal. The animal type differs 
from the vegetable, (though not all animals from 
plants,) in this, that while the latter has the superior 
and inferior polarity of single growth — the stem grow- 
ing upward and the root downward — the former has 
the anterior and posterior or cephalic and anticephalic 
polarity connected with a well developed nervous 
system. The radiates among animals are allied in 
this respect to plants, being animal representatives 
of the vegetable radiate type ; and this is the ground 
of the subdivision of the animal kingdom. 

The following are the two grand subdivisions in 
groups in nature, the first mentioned being the infe- 
rior, the other the superior. The latter is also the 
more typical group, or that in which the idea of the 
type is more fully represented : 

a. Life in general — 1, vegetable; 2, animal king- 

dom. 

b. Vegetable kingdom — 1, cryptogams or flowerless 

plants ; 2, phanerogams or flowering plants. 

c. Animal kingdom — 1, the flower-like type, in- 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 263 

eluding radiates; 2, the true animal type or 
cephalized species, that is, those having a 
head or anterior and posterior polarity with 
bilateral symmetry, including mollosks, arti- 
culates and vertebrates. 

d. Sub-kingdom of mollusks — 1, the flower-like 

type, including the bryozoans closely like 
flowers, the brachiopods generally attached 
by stem or pedicles, and ascidians, also often 
attached ; 2, the true molluscan type, includ- 
ing acephals, cephalates and cephalopods. 

e. Sub-kingdom of vertebrates — 1, water verte- 

brates, including fishes ; 2, land vertebrates, 
including reptiles, birds and animals. 

f. Class of crustaceons — 1, entomostroceons ; 2, 

malacostroceons. 

g. Class of reptiles — 1, amphibious; 2, true rep- 

tiles. 

h. Class of mammals — 1, marsupials or semiovipar- 
ans ; 2, nonmarsuphial or typical mammals. 

The great question of the day is, where can we 
draw a strait line between organic and inorganic 
bodies, for if we ever succeed to produce these 
organic matters, fat, starch, or fibrine from inor- 
ganic substances, the problem would be solved. 

From a lecture by Dr. Loew, of the College of the 
City of New York, referring to this great difficulty, 
and to the important place carbonic acid assumes in 



264 essay oisr cakbonic acid. 

the organisms, the following extract must be highly 
interesting : 

" Confessing that we cannot state positively how 
the first organic being was formed from inorganic 
matter, nevertheless we must conclude from conse- 
quence that it was formed by natural forces. 
When we see that the vegetable can produce organic 
matter from inorganic substance; when we see the 
animal being taking this organic matter of the vege- 
table up, and during the process of its life connecting 
in the very same inorganic combinations from which 
the vegetable builds up its body ; when we see this 
infinite construction, destruction, and reconstruction, 
we remark, as one of the first conditions, that the 
vegetable world existed previous to the animal world. 
Hence arises the question, How was the first organ- 
ized vegetable world formed ? There are possibilities 
directly from inorganic matter or from previously 
formed organic matter. Above all, let me ask here 
attention to the difference betw r een the words ' or- 
ganic ' and ' organized.' The chief part of an organ- 
ism consists of carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitro- 
gen ; water and mineral salts form the remainder. 
These four most important elements combine in an 
infinite number of proportions, and these combina- 
tions are of such an extremely complex order as are 
never to be found in the inorganic world. An or- 
ganic combination is the first condition for an organ- 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 265 

ized body, and organic combinations form the step 
from inorganic matter to organized beings. Two 
possibilities may have existed : either organic matter 
was formed from inorganic by natural forces, pre- 
vious to the formation of the first cell, or in the other 
<3ase, the cell, during its formation, formed also the 
organic combination necessary for its life from mine- 
ral salts, carbonic acid, and water. In the first case, 
the spontaneous generation has the same plasmogony ; 
in the second, autogeny. Theodore Saussure was the 
first who stated the fact that the carbonic compounds 
in the vegetables derive their carbon from the car- 
bonic acid contained in the air, and their hydrogen 
from the matter. Liebig then stated that the nitro- 
gen of the plants comes from the ammonia contained 
in the soil and in the atmosphere. We see, there- 
fore, the body of the vegetable, no matter how com- 
plicated its structure and its organization may be, is 
built up chiefly from carbonic acid and water — three 
inorganic combinations of a simple constitution. By 
a process of reduction, complicated organic radicals 
are formed, combining themselves to numerous 
bodies. Among these are sugar, fat and albumen. 
As organic chemistry must be considered as an off- 
spring of this century, it was, of course, considering 
its tender age, not possible until a few decades ago 
to prepare an organic body synthetically from its 
elements ; therefore the hypothesis came in vogue 



266 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

that there exists an especial power, the vital power. 
It was long considered as an impossibility to prepare 
artificially, from inorganic matter, such combinations- 
as may occur in the vegetable and animal body. The 
death-knell of the dogma of vital force was tolled in 
the year 1828. In this year the German chemist, 
Woehler, prepared, synthetically, the first organic 
combination. Woehler, in attempting to prepare 
eganate of ammonia, got, in evaporating a mixture 
of eganate of potassium and sulphate of ammonia, a 
body of an entirely different character to the salt he 
was seeking for. The atoms arranged themselves in 
another form, and this body presented itself exactly 
the same as that which is found in animal urine, 
named urea. This was the first step on a new road, 
and so rapid was the progress of organic chemistry, 
so rapidly was it advancing, that now we can count 
them by the hundreds. Dr. Loew then gave instan- 
ces of some of these combinations. Thus hydrogen 
and carbon, united in the voltaic curve, produce the 
hydrocarbon acetyline — the root of numerous organic 
combinations — until, with hydrogen, it produces de- 
fiant gas ; the cyanide of this gas, boiled with potassa, 
gives succinic acid ; this treated with brimstone, and 
then with potassa, gives malic and tartaric acid • 
malic acid heated gives fumaric. But malic, tartaric 
and fumaric are organic acids occurring in a great 
number of vegetables ; they can thus be artificially 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 267 

prepared from the elements. From acetyline ben' 
zol may be produced ; from benzol, benzoic acid, the 
root of a great number of organic combinations,, 
which can all be artificially prepared from benzoic 
acid, as oil of bitter almonds, gallic acid, hyp uric 
acid, &c. Sulphur and carbon may be united; the 
bisulphide of carbon, treated with iron filings and 
water, gives formic acid, which occurs in the ant and 
in the nettle ; formic acid, treated with potassa, yields 
oxalic acid, which is found in many plants. By treat- 
ing oxalic ether with sodium amalgam, we obtain 
disoxalic and malic acid and a kind of sugar, all or- 
ganic substances. Dr. Loew added to these instances 
numerous others, in which organic substances, such 
as fat, sugar, and alcohol, were formed by chemical 
processes from inorganic bodies. He then continued : 
These organic bodies which I have mentioned here 
form only a small part of the numerous organic com- 
binations which can be prepared artificially from the 
elements in the laboratory ; but, simultaneously, I 
must confess that there is much more to do than has 
been done. For example, gum-starch, quinine,, 
strychnine, cannot yet be artificially prepared, but 
tbere is not the slightest doubt that chemistry will 
solve all these problems in coming time. Further, it 
must be mentioned that the ways of the chemist 
in the laboratories are different from the ways of 
nature. The chemist has strong acids at his disposi- 



268 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

tion ; not so with nature, for she works only with the 
reducing power of the sunlight. That cannot as yet 
Be imitated, although we can often reach the same 
result in a labaratory. The history of chemistry, 
however, bids us to hope that this problem will yet 
be solved. When this great problem finds its solu- 
tion, we will obtain, probably some light, as to how, 
from carbonic acid, water and ammonia, organic 
matter was formed hundreds of thousands of years 
ago, when the first cell became endowed with life. 
In every case we had different conditions in those in- 
finitely remote ages — conditions more favorable for 
spontaneous generation, as there was a very warm 
and wet atmosphere rich in carbonic acid, with a 
mineral surface more liable to change, and different 
in appearance to what it is now-a-days. Therefore, 
it is probable that those first cells had quite a differ- 
ent character, as we imagine very liable to-chan^ 
and to different developments. Many experiments 
have been made to produce, artificially, cells, infuso- 
ries, or fungi, and this question seems to be satisfac- 
torily solved." 

In regard to the chemical relations of our globe, Dr. 
T. Sterry Hunt, in his lecture on primeval chemis- 
try, throws much light on the functions of carbonic 
acid exercised upon our globe, and cannot do better 
than to make an extract of his remarks : 

After explaining the astronomical parts and solar 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 269 

system, he says, in reference to the history of this 
earth, that there were no chemists who had an eye, 
except the eye of its great All Seeing One, to inves- 
tigate the marvellous phenomena ; but the chemist of 
the present day has to look to the rocks, water and 
air, and to their origin. 

Our earth was once a luminous mass of vapor, 
passing through a stage in which it was self-luminous 
like the sun, until it finally became cool to such a 
point that it liquified and became at last solid. The 
next question is, did the earth become solid first at 
the circumference or at the center ? This is important 
from more than one point of view, and has been in- 
vestigated by astronomers, physicists, and chemists, 
and it seems pretty clearly proved that the earth, if 
not solid to the center, must have a crust several 
hundred miles in thickness. And it is probable that 
if the cooling commenced at the center, that at least 
the surface would be covered with a thin layer of 
liquid matter, which, on cooling, would give an un- 
even surface to the primeval globe. So far as the 
chemistry of our planet is concerned, we have to deal 
only with this outer layer, all the various elements of 
which must have existed either in that crust or in the 
atmosphere which then snrrounded it. We form a 
good idea of this primeval crust, if we suppose the 
elements, rocks, air and ocean to be brought together 
at the intense heat which then existed. Under such 



270 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

conditions the lime, magnesia, alkalies — would all 
unite into combination with silica and alumina, while 
the atmosphere would contain chlorine, sulphur, 
carbon and hydrogen, together with oxygen and 
nitrogen. This would form on the one hand a slag- 
like siliceous mass, and on the other hand an 
atmosphere charged with acid vapors, yielding all the 
chlorine, sulphur and carbon in the form of acids, and 
the water in the form of steam mixed with nitrogen 
and oxygen. The weight of the atmosphere would 
be immense, and under its pressure water and the less 
volatile acids would be liquified at the high tempera- 
ture, and these acid waters would collect in the de- 
pressions of the earth's crust, where they would 
immediately decompose the silicates, separating the 
silica and forming sulphates and chlorates of the al- 
kalies — lime and magnesia. This solution would form 
first, sea water, and the action would continue till 
these affinities were satisfied. Then commenced a 
new chemical process, the action of air and water 
upon the exposed portions of the earth's crust, con- 
verting the silica into clay, with carbonates of lime, 
magnesia, and soda through the action of the carbonic 
acid of the atmosphere. The soda carried by rains 
to the sea, decomposes the lime salts, forming car- 
bonate of lime and sea salt. The process is still going 
on, though more slowly, from the small amount of 
carbonic acid in the air, and causing the decay in the 



ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 271 

hearts of granite rocks. We have thus explained the 
generation of silica or quartz of clay and of lime- 
stones, the principle elements of sedimentary rocks^ 
Every clod of clay represents granite rocks decom- 
posed, and an amount of limestone and sea salt ? 
formed from the waters of the ocean. In this way 
the air was freed from carbonic acid, and fitted for 
the support of animal life. Besides this, the vege- 
tation removed large portions of carbonic acid, re- 
placing it by oxygen, and the formation of limestone 
directly diverted still greater amounts of carbonic 
acid, whose presence must have rendered the early 
atmosphere unfit for the higher forms of life. The 
presence of carbonic acid in the early atmosphere 
serves to explain the higher temperature then 
prevailing, which permitted the growth of tropical 
plants within polar circles. ¥c know that a portion 
of carbonic acid, such as then existed in the air, while 
it would not prevent the passage of the sun's rays 
would impede the radiation of obscure heat from the 
earth's surface, and thus tend to keep up a summer 
temperature. The effect of this carbonic acid would 
be like the glass of an orchard-house in preventing 
the escape of heat. Thus carbonic acid exerted alsa 
an important part in many other chemical processes 
then active at the earth's surface. Besides deposits 
formed by chemical processes, mechanical operations 
were forming at the earth's surface a great amount 



272 ESSAY ON CARBONIC ACID. 

of sandy and clayey rocks, which make up the bulk 
of the stratified forms. Although the interior of the 
earth has been regarded as solid, it is notwithstanding 
doubtless intensely heated, and thus is explained the 
increase of temperature as we go below the surface. 
The cooling of this center, once rapid, is now very 
slow indeed from the thickness of the overlying sedi- 
ment. The effect of this heat upon the deeply buried 
sediment has been to crystallize them, and convert 
them into metamorphic rocks. To this class belongs 
granite, once looked upon as a primitive rock. We 
have now evidence that granite is in all cases a 
secondary rock, derived from sediments crystallized 
through the agency of water and heat. In the quartz 
of granite are often found small cavities, partly filled 
with water, which are so many small thermometers 
showing the temperature at which the granite was 
crystallized. Pressure, which increases the melting 
point of rock when exposed to fires, greatly favors 
the dissolving power of heated water, so that we may 
snppose that the lowest strata of sediment and often 
adjacent portions of the primal nucleus being per- 
meated with water, under great heat and pressure, 
became softened and yielding. From this softened 
zone came all eruptive rocks, and in it are to be 
found the causes of volcanoes whose various products 
are generated by the action of heat upon the varied 
elements of deeply buried sedementary strata. The 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 273 

theory which ascribes volcanic products to the sup- 
posed uncooled liquid center, fails entirely to account 
for the great diversity in composition of these pro- 
ducts, all of which, wherever found, are represented 
in rocks of aqueous origin. The distribution of 
modern vocanoes shows them to be intimately con- 
nected with comparatively recent accumulations of 
sedimentary rocks; entire absence of volcanic pheno- 
mena over the eastern part of this continent is thus 
explained. 

II. On Limestones : their Origin and Functions. 

The early geologists were impressed with the 
theory of the origin of all limestones; that is, was 
due to organized beings or substances, and the reason 
advanced by them was because the quantity of lime- 
stone in the primary strata bore a much smaller pro- 
portion to the silicious and argillaceous rock in the 
secondary, and because testaceous animals were so 
rarely found in the ancient ocean, and furthermore 
that the quantity of calvareous earth deposited in the 
form of mud or stone is always increasing, and that 
as the secondary series far exceeds the primary in 
this respect, so a third series may hereafter arise from 
the depth of the sea, which will exceed the last in 
the proportion of its calcaceous strata. Some con- 
clusions were drawn from this assertion that lime 



27i ESSAY OX LIMESTONES. 

may probably be an animal product combined by the 
powers of vitality from some simple elements, and 
tli at every particle of lime that now enters into the 
crust of the globe, may possibly in its turn have been 
subservient to the purposes of life by entering into 
the composition of organized bodies. 

Lime is contained in the ocean and is plentifully 
secreted by the testacea and corals of the Pacific, 
and must have derived either from springs rising up 
in the bed of the ocean or from rivers fed by calca- 
reous springs or impregnated with lime, derived from 
disintegrated rocks, both volcanic and hypogene and 
the greater proportion of limestone in the more 
modern formations, or compared to the most ancient 
may be explained, for springs in general hold no 
argillaceous and but a small quantity of siliceous 
matter in solution, but they are continually substract- 
ino; calcareous matter from the inferior rocks. The 
constant transfer therefore of carbonate of lime from 
the lower or older portions of the earths' crust to the 
surface must cause at all periods and throughout an 
indefinite succession of geological epochs a prepon- 
derance of calcareous matter in the newer or con- 
trasted with the older formations. It has been urged 
that we discover in the ancient rocks the signs of an 
epoch, when the planet was uninhabited and when 
its surface was in a chaotic condition. The opinion 
however that the oldest of the rocks now visible may 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 275 

be the last monuments of an antecedent era in which 
living beings may already have peopled the land and 
water, has been declared to be equivalent to the 
assumption that there never was a beginning to the 
present order of things, no argument can be drawn 
from premises in favor of the infinity of the space 
that has been filled with worlds, and if the material 
universe has any limits, it then follows, that it must 
occupy a minute and infinitessimal point in infinite 
space. So if in tracing back the earth's history, we 
arrive at the monuments of events which may have 
happened millions of ages before our time, and if 
we still find no decided evidence of a commence- 
ment, yet the arguments from analogy in support of 
the probability of a beginning remains unshaken, 
and if the past elevation of the earth be finite, then 
the aggregate of geological epochs, however numer- 
ous, must constitute a mere movement of the past, a 
mere infinitesimaal portion of eternity ! 

We know that it is not only the present condition 
of the globe, which has been suited to the accommo- 
dation of myriads of living creatures, but that many 
former states also have been adapted to the organiza- 
tion and habits of prior races of beings. The dispo- 
sition of the seas, continents and islands, and the 
climates, have varied, the species likewise have been 
changed ; yet they have all been so modelled on 
types analogous to those of existing plants and 



276 ESSAY OX LIMESTONES. 

animals, as to indicate throughout a perfect harmony 
of design and unity of purpose. To assume that the 
evidence of the beginning or end of so vast a scheme 
lies within the reach of our philosophical inquiries, 
or even of our speculations, appears to be inconsis- 
tent with a just estimate of the relations which 
subsist between the finite powers of man and the 
attributes of an infinite and eternal being. The 
peculiar position of lime in the system of nature, is 
that of a medium between the organic and inorganic 
world. Carbonate of lime is soluble in water which 
holds a little carbonic acid in solution, and is found 
in river, marine and well waters. It is made into 
shells, corals, and partly into bone, by animals, and 
then turned over to the inorganic world to make 
rocks. Lime is therefore the medium by which 
organic beings aid in the inorganic progress of the 
globe; for the greater part of limestones have been 
made through the agency of life, either vegetable or 
animal. Lime, which is the oxide of the metal cal- 
cium, is commonly called quicklime, forms com- 
pounds with silica or silicate, with carbonic acid, the 
carbonate or carbonate of lime, which is the material 
of limestones, with sulphuric acid the sulphate of 
lime or gypsum. 

Lime also unites with phosphoric acid, forming 
phosphate of lime, the essential material of bones, a 
constituent also of other animal tissues. Like the 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 277 

carbonate, this phosphate is afterwards contributed 
to the rock material of the globe, and is one source 
of mineral phosphates. Calcium is one of the nine 
elements which are the prominent constituents of 
rocks, viz., oxygen, silicon, aluminium, magnesium, 
calcium, potassium, sodium, and carbon, making up 
977-1000 of the whole crust. The limestones of the 
siluric and later ages have, nearly all been made 
through the wear and accumulation of shells, crinoids 
and corals, or the calcareous relics of whatever life 
occupied the seas. The great limestone formations 
of existing coral seas are modern examples of the 
process. It has been the subject of curious specula- 
tion whence the coral polypifers and testaceous 
mollusca can obtain the vast quantities of carbonate 
of lime w T hich they secrete to form the envelopes by 
which they are preserved. It has been considered 
more than probable that they have the extraordinary 
faculty of producing lime from simple elements. 
Some seem disposed to impute its origin in the 
same manner to the influence of vital energy in 
combining elementary bodies, and it follows that 
the quantity of lime on the surface of the earth 
must be progressively increasing, unless it be 
supposed that other natural processes are regu- 
larly taking place for the decomposition of 
calcareous earth, or rather of the metallic base 
calcium. 

12 



278 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

Mr. Lyell, however, sees no reason for supposing 
that the lime now on the surface or in the crust of 
the earth may not, as the silex and aluminum, or 
any other mineral substance, have existed before the 
first organic beings were created, if it be assumed 
that the arrangement of the inorganic materials of 
our planet proceeded in the order of time, the intro- 
duction of the first organic inhabitants, and adds, in 
reference to the abundance of carbonate of lime 
furnished by springs which rise through granite, that 
if the carbonate of lime, secreted by the testaceous 
corals of the Pacific, be chiefly derived from below, 
and if it be a very general effect of the action of 
subterranean heat to subtract calcareous matters from 
the inferior rocks, and to cause it to ascend to the 
surface, no argument can be derived in favor of 
the unaggressive increase of limestone from the mag- 
nitude of coral reefs, or the greater proportion of 
calcareous strata in the more modern formations. A 
constant transfer of carbonate of lime from the 
inferior parts of the earth's crust to its surface, would 
cause throughout all future time, and for an indefinite 
succession of geological epochs, a preponderance 
of calcareous matter in the newer as contrasted 
with the older formations. 

The rock, formed under the surface of the sea 
originated either from depositions or from chemical 
precipitation ; those of the former class are numerous, 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 279 

including most of the stratified rocks which inclose 
sea-shells, fragments of corals, and other exuviae of 
tones of marine animals. Among those of the 
better class, some geologists have reckoned even 
granite, and Deluc states in that respect that the 
strata of granite were evidently produced by chemi- 
cal decompositions from a liquid, and form the most 
ancient monument of the action of physical causes 
on our globe ; however the origin of granite as well 
as that of all other unstratified rocks, has been 
ascribed mostly to igneous fusion and consolidation. 
Most of the calcareous rocks containing marine shells 
must have been produced under the influence of 
chemical affinity, and of this nature are the forma- 
tions which are occasionally observed to take place 
on the sea coasts. Collections of perfect and broken 
shells and corals are sometimes consolidated by the 
precipitation of calcareous and ferruginous matter, 
constituting banks or beds of considerable extent. 
Such masses, containing shells, occur in various parts 
of the shores of Great Britain. Similar conglome- 
rates, including both shells and corals, are not uncom- 
mon around some of the islands in the West Indies. 
At Guadaloupe human bones have been found 
imbedded in a rock of this kind, whence were 
obtained two imperfect human skeletons, one pre- 
served at the British Museum, and the other in the 
Paris Museum, and from the occurrence of these 



280 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

bones, and other circumstances, may be inferred the 
comparatively modern origin of the rock in question. 
The Florida Keys abound in deposits of shells in 
various states of disintegration and subsequent union 
by cement. 

Among the marine formations there are few more 
curious or interesting than coral reefs and islands, 
which to a certain extent are constructed by different 
kinds of polypiferous zoophytes ; and they are very 
numerous, mostly belonging to the genera Mean- 
drina, Coryaphillia, and Astrea, particularly the 
latter. AH of them are minute animals, for which 
the coral tubes serve as habitations. It has been 
supposed that the coral rocks descend in perpendicu- 
lar columns to the bed of the ocean, and cover 
millions of acres of the Pacific. So great is the 
extent, that the inhabitants of Disappointment 
Islands and those of Duffs Group pay visits to each 
other by passing over long lines of reefs from 
island to island, a distance of six hundred miles. 

Many islands which were visited by Capt. Kotze- 
bue have several groups of coral islands arranged in 
a circular or oval form, with openings among them 
which afforded access to the interior basin. These 
islands seemed to be only the upper portion of ridges 
of unequal height, on the inside of which, toward the 
basin or lagoon, where there is still water, the 
smaller and more delicate kinds of polypes carry on 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 281 

tlieir operations, while the stronger species live and 
work on the exterior margin of the bank, against 
which a great surf usually breaks. These creatures 
leave off* building as soon as their structures reach 
such a height as to be left almost dry at the lowest 
ebb of the tide. A mass of solid stone is seen, com- 
posed of shells of molluscs, and when with them 
broken off prickles, and fragments of coral cemented 
by calcareous matter. The ridge is raised by frag- 
ments of corals thrown up by the waves, till it 
becomes so high as to be covered only by high tides 
at certain seasons. Masses of the stone thus formed 
are sometimes separated and thrown upon the surface 
of the reefs, so as gradually to augment its elevation. 
The rate of growth of the common branching Madre- 
pore is not over one and a half inches a year. Other 
branches are open. This would not be equivalent to 
more than half an inch in height of solid coral for 
the whole surface covered by the Madrepore ; and as 
they are also porous, to not cover over three-eighths 
of an inch of solid limestone. But a coral plantation 
has large bare patches without corals, and the coral 
sands are widely distributed by currents, part of 
them to depths over one hundred feet, where there 
are no living corals. Not more than one-sixth of the 
surface of a reef region is in fact covered with grow- 
ing species, which reduces the three-eighths to one- 
sixteenth. Shells and other organic relics may 



282 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

contribute one-quarter as much as corals. At the 
outside the average upward increase of the whole 
reefground per year would not exceed one-eighth of 
an inch. jSTow some reefs are at least two thousand 
feet thick, which at one-eighth of an inch a year cor- 
responds to 190,000 years. If the progressing 
subsidence essential to the increasing thickness were 
slower than the most rapid rate at which the upward 
progress might take place, the time would be propor- 
tionally longer. Coral formations are most abundant 
in the tropical Pacific, where there are two hundred 
and ninety coral islands, too numerous to mention. 
A distinction exists between coral islands and coral 
reefs ; the first are isolated coral formations in the 
open sea, and the second are banks of coral bordering- 
other lands or islands. It has been already stated 
that the tropics are the hotbed for coral formations ; 
the limiting temperature of reef forming corals is 
68° F. They do not flourish where the mean tem- 
perature of any month of the year is below that 
degree. Certain tropical coasts are exempt from 
coral reefs, for the following reasons : the cold extra- 
tropical oceanic currents, as in Western South 
America; muddy or alluvial shores, or the emptying- 
of large rivers ; for coral polyps require clear sea 
water and generally a solid foundation to build upon. 
Also the process of volcanic action destroys the life 
of a coast ; also the depth of water on precipitous 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 283 

shores, for the reef corals do not grow where the 
depth exceeds one hundred feet. Beyond that depth 
there are no growing corals, except some kinds that 
enter but sparingly into the structure of reefs, the 
largest of which are the dendrophylliae. 

The rock forming the coral platform and other 
parts of the solid reef, is a white limestone, made out 
of corals and shells : its ramification is like that of 
ordinary limestones. In some parts it contains the 
corals imbedded, but in others it is perfectly com- 
pact, without a fossil of any kind, only an occasional 
shell. In no case is it chalk. The compact, non- 
fossiliferous kinds are found in the lagoons or. shel- 
tered channels, the kind made of broken corals on 
the sea shore side, in the face of the wayes; those 
made of corals standing as they grow in sheltered 
waters, where the sea has free access. The principal 
kinds of coral rock consist in, 

1. A fine grained, compact, and clinking lime- 
stone, solid and flint-like in fracture as any Silurian 
limestone, and wdth rarely a shell or fragment of 
coral. This is a calcium variety, and when coral reefs 
and islands have been elevated, it often makes up the 
mass of the rock exposed to view, it is a puzzle how 
to account for the absence of the fossils. 

2. A compact colite consisting of rounded concre- 
tionary grains, and generally without any distinct 
fossils. 



284 ESSAY OX LIMESTONE-. 

3. A rock equally compact and hard with No. 1, 
but containing imbedded fragments of corals and 
some shells. 

4. A conglomerate of broken corals and shells, 
with little else, very firm and solid ; many of the 
corals several cubic feet in size. 

5. A rock consisting of corals standing on the 
solid earth, the interstices filled iu with coral sand, 
shells and fragments. In general, the rock is exceed- 
ingly solid, but in some instances the interstices are 
but loosely filled. 

All these corals, when alive in water, are covered 
throughout with expanded polyps, emulating in 
beauty of form and colors the flowers of the land. 
Beside.- corals and shells, there are also some kinds 
of calcareous vegetation called nullipores, both 
branching and incrusting in form, which add to the 
accumulation. They grow well over the edge of the 
reef, in the face of the breakers, and attain consider- 
able thickness. 

The waves in their heavier movements, sweeping 
over the coral plantations, may be as destructive as 
wind- over forests. They tear up the corals, and by 
incessant perturbation reduce the fragments to a 
great extent into sand, and the debris thus made, and 
ever making, are scattered over the bottom or piled 
upon the coast by the tide, or swept over the lower 
parte of the reef into the lagoon. The corals keep 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 285 

growing, and this sand and the fragments go on 
accumulating, the consolidation of the fragmental 
material makes the ordinary reef rock. Thus, by the 
help of the waves, a solid reef structure is formed 
from the sparsely growing corals. 

Where the corals are protected from the waves, 
they grow up bodily to the surface, and make a weak 
open structure instead of the solid reef rock, or, if it 
be a closely branching species, so as to be firm, it 
still wants the compactness of the reef that has been 
formed amid the waves. According to their posi- 
tion, there are fringing or barrier reefs, the 
first ar3 attached directly to the shore, while the 
others are like artificial moles, separated from the 
shore by a channel of water. The thickness of a 
coral formation is very great, sometimes thousands of 
feet; the instances are quoted that no bottom was 
found at 6,000 fe-t ; at the Fejees, 2 to 3,000 feet. 
Fringe reefs form the origin for the Atolls, like the 
Menchikoff, as explained by Darwin, which are high 
islands consisting of two clusters of summits, like 
Mani and Oahee in the Hawaian group. It has been 
stated that one of the principal sources of the lime- 
stone formation is formed. Shells and corals, which 
form extensive beds and acquire a texture as firm as 
any marble, and by watching the process of accumu- 
lation, from the growth of corals and the wear of the 
waves, that the remains of these corals form a com- 



286 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

pact bed ; and we infer from this great phenomenon 
that if we meet with a limestone over this continent 
containing remains of corals or shells, that the 
ancient limestone w T as as much a slowly formed rock 
made of corals or shells as the limestone of coral 
seas. 

From Hirsch's new Journal " The Arts " the 
following Extract is made with reference to the reef- 
building coral. 

The variety of compact and branching corals far 
exceeds description : 120 species are inhabitants of 
the Red Sea alone, and an enormous area of the 
Tropical Pacific is everywhere crowded with the 
stupendous works of these minute agents, destined to 
change the present geological features of the globe, 
as their predecessors have done in the remote ages of 
its existence. 

Four distinctly different formations are due to the 
coral-building polypes in the Pacific and Indian 
Oceans, namely : lagoon islands or atolls, encircling 
reefs, barrier reefs, and coral fringes — all nearly con- 
fined to the torrid zone. 

An atoll is a ring or chaplet of coral, enclosing a 
lagoon or portion of the ocean in its centre. The 
average breadth of that part of the ring which rises 
above the surface of the sea is about a quarter of a 
mile, often less, a;nd it is seldom more than from six 
to ten or twelve feet above the waves ; hence the 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 287 

lagoon islands are not visible, even at a very small 
distance, unless covered by the cocoanut, the palm, 
or the pandanus, which is frequently the case. On 
the outside, the ring or circlet slopes down for a 
distance of one or two hundred yards from its edge, 
so that the sea gradually deepens to about twenty -live 
fathoms, beyond which the sides of the ringe plunge 
at once into the unfathomable depths of the ocean, 
with a more rapid descent than the cone of any vol- 
cano. Even at the small distance of some hundred 
yards, no bottom has been reached with a sounding- 
line a mile and a half long. 

All the coral in the exterior of the ring, to a 
moderate depth below the surface of the water, is 
alive; all above it is dead, being the detritus of the 
living part washed up by the surf, which is so heavy 
on the windward side of the tropical islands of the 
Pacific and Indian oceans, that it is often heard miles 
off, and is frequently the first warning to seamen of 
their approach to an atoll. 

The outer margins of Maldave atolls, consisting 
chiefly of nullipores and porites, are beaten by a surf 
so tremendous that even ships have been thrown, by 
a single upheaval of the sea, high and dry on the reef. 
The waves give innate vigor to the polypes by bring- 
ing an ever-renewed supply of food to nourish them, 
and oxygen to support life; besides, uncommon 
energy is given and maintained by the heat of the 



288 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

tropical sun, which gives them power to abstract 
enormous quantities of solid matter from the water 
to build their strong homes — a power that is efficient 
in proportion to the energy of the breakers which 
furnish the supply. 

On the margin of the atolls, close within the line, 
where the coral is washed by the tide, three species 
of nullipores flourish ; they are beautiful little plants, 
very common in the coral islands. One species 
grows in thin spreading sheets, like a lichen ; the 
second, in strong knobs as thick, as a man's finger, 
radiating from a common centre ; and the third 
species, which has the color of peach blossoms, is a 
recalculated mass of stiff branches, about the thickness 
of a crow's quill. The three species either grow 
mixed or separately, and although they can exist 
above the line of the corals, they require to be bathed 
the greater part of each tide ; hence a layer two or 
three feet thick, and about twenty yards broad, 
formed by the growth of the nullipores, fringes the 
circlet of the atolls and protects the coral below. 

The lagoon in the centre of these islands is supplied 
with water from the exterior, by openings in the lee- 
side of the ring, but as the water has been deprived 
of the greater part of its nutritious particles and 
inorganic matter by the corals on the outside, the 
harder kinds are no longer produced, and species of 
more delicate forms take their place. The depth of 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 289 

the lagoon varies from fifty to seventy fathom or less, 
the bottom being partly detritus, partly live coral. 
In these calm, limpid waters, the corals are of the 
most varied and delicate structures, and the most 
charming and dazzling hues. 

When the shades of evening, come on, the lagoon 
shines like the milky way, with millions of brilliant 
sparks. The microscopic medusa and Crustacea, in- 
visible during the clay, form the beauty of the night, 
and the sea-feather, vermillion in day-light, now 
waves with green phosphorescent light. This gor- 
geous character of the sea-bed is not peculiar to the 
lagoons of the atolls — it prevails in shallow water 
throughout the whole coral-bearing regions. 

We have other materials of organic origin which 
have been formed into rocks, and which are generally 
divided in four groups, such as, 

1. The calcareous rocks from which the limestones 
have been formed, namely, corals, shells, crinoids, 
which have a specific group of 2,428. 

2. The silieious, or those wdiich have contributed 
to the silica of rocks, and may have originated flints, 
such as, a, the microscopic siliceous shields of the 
infusoria called diatoms, which are now regarded 
as plants; 5, the microscopic siliceous spicula of 
sponges. 

3. The phosphatic, or those which have contributed 
phosphites, especially the phosphate of lime, as 



290 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

bones, excrements, and a few shells related to the 
lingula. Such excrements are called coprolites, as 
those of birds, when in large accumulations guano. 

4. The carbonaceous, or those which have afforded 
coal and series of plants. 

Among the calcareous rocks, we have also an 
uncrystalline limestone and a crystalline. 

1. The massive, which, as has previously been 
mentioned, as being formed from shells and corals, 
ground up by the action of the sea and afterwards 
consolidated. 

The colors are dull gray, bluish, brownish to black, 
its composition is usually the same as that of calcite, 
carbonate of lime, except that impurities, as clay or 
sand, are often present. They vary in texture, from 
an earthy looking limestone to a very compact semi 
crystalline one, and passes gradually into a crystalline. 

2. Magnesian or Dolomitic Limestone, which con- 
sists of carbonate of lime and magnesia, but it is not 
distinguishable in color or texture from ordinary 
limestone. Most of our American limestones are 
magnesian. 

3. Hydraulic Limestone. It is an impure or earthy 
limestone, containing some clay, and affording quick- 
lime, and thence the water cement is formed. 

4. Ooietic Limestone, a rock consisting of minute 
concretionary spherules, and looking like the petri- 
fied row of fish. 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 291 

5. Chalk is a white earthy limestone, which leaves 
a trace on a board. 

6. Marl, a clay, composed of a large proportion of 
carbonate of lime; and it is called shell marl if it 
consists largely of shells or corals. 

7. Shell Limestone is a rock consisting entirely of 
shells or corals. 

8. The Birdseye Limestone is a compact limestone 
which has crystalline points disseminated through it. 

9. The Travertin is a massive but porous lime- 
stone formed by depositions from springs or streams, 
holding carbonate of lime in solution, or bi-carbon- 
ate. Such a rock abounds on the river Avino, near 
Tivoli, and is used there as building material. 

10. Stalagmite, Stalactite, depositions from water 
trickling through the roofs of limestone caverns, 
from pendent calcareous cones and cylinders from 
the roofs, which are called stalactite, and incrusta- 
tions on the floors which are called stalagmite ; they 
are usually translucent. The crystalline limestone 
comprehends the granular limestone, such as the 
statuary marble, which has a granular texture from 
white to gray color. The calcareous deposits in the 
thermal springs have been mentioned, and have fur- 
nished food for speculation as to their origin and 

cause of their deposit. We find some hot springs which 
deposit siliceous matter, and some calcareous. The 
Geysers of Iceland contain siliceous earths in solution 



292 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

and deposit them on cooling ; these deposits extend 
over an area of about half a mile in diameter, and 
from th : depth of a cleft near the great Geyser, the 
siliceou ; matter appears to be more than twelve feet 
in thickness. The hot springs of Furnas, in the vol- 
canic district of St. Michael, one of the Azores, large 
quantities of silex, enveloping grass, leaves and other 
vegetable bodies, some of which are still flowering, 
in the island are seen, frequently forming horizontal 
strata, siliceous stalactites two inches long, and cov- 
ered with small brilliant quartz crystals. The hot 
springs of Arkansas, in the Ozark Mountains, form a 
district of extinct volcanoes ; they have furnished the 
author most exquisite specimens of quartz crystals in 
groups for his own cabinet, and excited the admira- 
tion of the scientific and curious world when he 
exhibited them at the London Exhibition in 1851, 
and the variety of forms, as well as the sizes and par- 
ticular appearance, cannot be excelled. 

The thermal spiings of Primarkoon and Loor- 
gootlie, in the East Indies, contain besides silica 
various salts of soda. 

The Travertin is by no means confined to loca- 
tions where limestone districts are known, but occurs 
indiscriminately in all rock formations. In Au- 
vergne in France, where the primary rocks are desti- 
tute of limestone, springs abundantly charged with 
carbonate of lime rise up through the granite and 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 298 

grass. In the valley of the Elsa, which skirts the 
Appenines in Italy, are innunerable springs which 
have thrown down such calcareous precipitates that 
the whole ground in some parts of Tuscany is coated 
with Travertin, and sounds hollow^ under foot. A 
most striking instance of the rapid deposit of carbon- 
ate of lime from thermal waters may be observed in 
the hill of San Yignone, on the high road between 
Sienna and Rome, a large mass of Travertin de- 
scends the hill, from the point whence the spring 
issues to the bank of the River Orcia, a distance of 
250 feat, forming a mass of varying thickness, but 
sometimes 200 feet in depth, and on the other side of 
the hill a similar deposit extends about half a mile, 
in parallel strata, one of which is fifteen feet thick 
and constitutes excellent building stone. 

The hot springs of Waehita, before mentioned, 
have likewise large deposits of travertin, forming 
escarpments along the borders of the stream, into 
which the hot springs descend. 

Among the beds of the Potsdam period, the mag- 
nesian limestone strata of the Quebec group contain 
numerous fossils, and thus show that they are marine 
and that they have the origin of whatever life occu- 
pied the seas. The extensive magnesian limestones 
of the Mississippi Valley have the same composition 
and are similar in compactness ; the natural inference 
is that they were also of organic origin. But over 



294 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

extensive regions they do not contain a single fossil. 
Yet it is to be remembered that the sea, which grinds 
pebbles and sand and makes fine sandstones, may 
also grind shells and make an impalpable limestone. 
This is abundantly exemplified in coral regions, for 
a large part of the limestone there made of corals and 
shells is as compact and unfossiliferous as the magne- 
sian limestone in question. 

The only other mode of origin is by chemical depo- 
sition. This could not have taken place in the open 
seas, for, owing to the oceanic currents, the waters 
have a remarkable uniformity of composition, and no 
local deposition can take place. It requires, there- 
fore, an elevation above the sea and the existence of 
calcareous mineral springs, and springs on a wonder- 
fully vast scale, for a formation as extensive as the 
magnesian limestone of the Potsdam period. Such 
a condition of things is improbable. Moreover, the 
depositions would have a structure wholly unlike 
that of the magnesian limestone. Whoever has seen 
the travertin beds of Tivoli, which are the largest of 
the chemical calcareous deposits formed in the present 
era, will appreciate the wide distinction between the 
mass made up of a series of incrustations, carving 
with all sorts of fantastic irregularities, and the dense 
even-grained limestone of the calciferous epoch. The 
oolitic structure of part of this limestone has a paral- 
lel in the oolitic coral rock of Key West, which is 
also without imbedded corals or shells. 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 295 

It is curious to reflect that if the bottom of the 
equatorial seas, where atolls abound, were upraised 
and laid dry, we should behold mountain peaks 
and ridges composed fundamentally of volcanic, gra- 
nitic and other rocks, on which tabular masses of 
limestone would repose. Some of these calcareous 
cappings would be continuous over an area three 
miles, others above 300 miles in circumference, while 
their thickness might vary from 1,000 to 10,000 feet 
or more. They would consist principally of corals 
and shells — in some places entire, in others broken. 
In the lower regions of the same continent, and be- 
tween the high table lands or mountain ridges, there 
would often be no contemporary deposits, or where 
exceptions occurred to this rule the calcareous strata 
would differ in their nature as much as in the species 
of fossils which they enclosed from the tabular masses 
of coral. It has been observed that the softer corals T 
when they decompose in the lagoon, are resolved into 
a white mud, which, when dry, is undistinguishable 
from common chalk, and inference may be drawn 
that a recent cretacrous formation may now be in 
progress in many parts of the Pacific and Indian 
oceans. 

It is, however, more than probable that lime r 
which is generally contained in sea water and 
secreted so plentifully by the testacea and corals of 
the Pacific, may have been derived either from springs 



296 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

rising up in the bed of the ocean, or from rivers fed 
by calcareous springs, or impregnated with lime de- 
rived from disintegrated rocks, both volcanic and 
hypogene ; and if this be admitted, the greater pro- 
portion of limestone in the more modern formations, 
as compared to the most ancient, will be explained, 
for springs in general hold no argillaceous, and but a 
small quantity of siliceous matter in solution, but 
they are continually substracting calcareous matter 
from the inferior rocks. The constant transfer, 
therefore, of carbonate of lime from the lower or older 
portions of the earth's crust to the surface, must cause 
at all periods, and throughout an indefinite succession 
of geological epochs, a preponderance of calcareous 
matters in the newer, as contrasted with the older, 
formations. 

The chalk of which allusion has just been made, 
having their oriffin likewise in the lagoons where the 
morals have been converted into mud, belongs to the 
tertiary strata called the cretaceous or chalky group 
and is but a limestone or carbonate of lime. Al- 
though usually soft, this substance passes in many 
localities by a gradual change into a solid stone used 
for building, the stratification is oil en obscure, except 
where rendered distinctly alternating layers of flint. 
These layers are from 2 to 4 feet distant from each 
other and from 3 to 6 inches in thickness, occasionally 
in continuous beds, but more frequently in nodules. 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 29 T 

No doubt exists but what the chalk was formed in an 
open sea of some depth, but how so large a quantity 
of this peculiar white substance could have accumulat- 
ed over an erea many hundred miles in diameter and 
some of the extreme points of which are distant more 
than 1000 geographical miles from each other, is of 
the greatest interest and its derivation from the decay 
of corals and shells has given rise to many philo- 
sophical investigations. The most difficult problem 
is the origin of the flint in the chalk, whether it occurs 
in isolated nodules or continuous layers. It seems 
that there was originally siliceous as well as cal- 
careous earth in the muddy bottom of the cretaceous 
sea, at least when the upper chalk was deposited. 
Whether both these earths could have been alike 
supplied by the decay of organic bodies, may be a 
matter of speculation. The flints which is contained 
as nodules in the chalk are distributed in layers 
through it like the hornstone in the earlier limestones; 
they are more or less rounded and often assume fan- 
tastic shapes; sometimes they resemble rolled stones, 
but in fact all are of concretionary origin. The 
exterior of the nodules for a little depth is frequently 
white and penetrated by chalk, proving that they 
are not introduced boulders or stone but have origi- 
nated where they now lie, and we attribute the parallel 
disposition of the flints layers to successive deposition. 
The distances between the layers must have been 



298 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

regulated by the intervals of precipitation, each new 
mass forming at the bottom of the ocean a bed of 
pulpy fluid, which did not penetrate the preceeding 
bed on which it rested, because the consolidation of 
the last has so far advanced as to prevent such inter- 
mixture; it remains, therefore, a singular phenome- 
non not yet satisfactorily accounted for. Perhaps, as 
the specific gravity of the siliceous exceeds that of 
the calcareous particles, the heavier flint may have 
sunk to the bottom of each stratum of soft mud. 
How far and wide this mud has been scattered by 
oceanic currents may be seen by the area over which 
the white chalk preserves a homogenous aspect, that 
we can hardly find an analogous deposit of recent 
date ; chalk is found from the north of Ireland to the 
Crimea, a distance of 1,140 geographical miles, and 
from the south of Sweden to Bordeaux, about 840 
geographical miles. The chalk cliffs of the English 
Channel form one great continuous mass on both 
sides, in the neighborhood of London and Paris 
basin. 

Chalk forms one of the rocks of the cretacious 
period. It is not found in America, but the creta- 
cious limestone of this formation comprises very 
extensive beds, and is divided into two great epochs 
— 1, that of the earlier cretaceous, and 2, the epoch 
of the later cretaceous ; they extend from New Jersey 
to South Carolina, along the Gulf borders, and 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 299 

through a large part of the Western Interior region, 
over the slopes of the Rocky Mountains, from Texas 
northward and far into the Colorado region, on the 
west of British America and Arctic Sea, but they are 
unknown on the Atlantic borders north of New York. 
The rocks comprise beds of sand, marl, clay, loosely 
aggregated shell limestone, and compact limestone, 
and the sandy layers are predominating, and are of va- 
rious colors ; white, gray, reddish and dark green, and 
though sometimes solid, they are often so loose that 
they may be rubbed to pieces in the hand, or worked 
out by a pick and shovel. Layers of potters' clay 
occur in the series. 

The marl of New Jersey and elsewhere, which is a 
dark green sandy variety and forms very extensive 
beds, is called Greensand ; is a green silicate of iron 
and potash, with a trace of phosphate of lime, and 
this makes it highly valuable for fertilizing purposes. 
The cretaceous formation has a thickness in New 
Jersey of 400 to 500 feet ; in Alabama, 500 to 600 
feet ; in Texas, about 800 feet ; and in the region of 
the upper Missouri, 2,000 to 2,500 feet. 

The upper or later cretaceous period, comprises the 
beds on the Atlantic and Gulf borders and in New r 
Jersey, while the lower are represented in the West- 
ern Interior region, including Texas. 

The cretaceous beds of Europe have been divided 
into : * 



300 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

1. The lower cretaceous, including — England, 
the lower greensand, 800 to 900 feet thick, and in 
other regions beds of clay and limestone, sometimes 
chalky. 

2. The middle cretaceous, including in Eng- 
land — a, the clayey beds or marls called gault, 150 
feet thick ; and &, the upper greensand, 100 feet 
thick. 

3. The upper cretaceous, including in England the 
beds of chalk, in all about 1,200 feet. It consists of 
— «, the lower or gray chalk or chalk marl without 
flint ; 5, the white chalk containing flint ; e 3 the 
Maestricht beds, rough friable limestone at Maes- 
tricht, Denmark, 100 feet thick. 

The life of the cretaceous period in Europe resem- 
bled that of America, but was far more abundant. 
Nearly 6,000 species of animals have been described, 
more than half of them molluscs ; whereas, in Amer- 
ica the whole number does not exceed 2,000. 

The great Interior Continental basin, which had 
been a limestone-making region, for the most part, 
from the earliest period of the Silurian, was still in 
its southern part, as in Texas, continuing the same 
work, for limestones 80 feet thick were there formed. 
To the north of Texas, where the waters were shal- 
lower, there appears to have been none of the echino- 
derms, corals, orbitolinae, &c, which were common 
in Texas. 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 301 

Having stated of the extent of the cretaceous or 
ehalk formation as of a recent origin or mesozoic 
time, we find before our doors the limestones in large 
deposits on the verge of the azoic time. 

New York Island, which is about 13 miles long, 
consists of eight different formations of metamorphic 
rocks, (a term first proposed by Lyell, of the altered 
strata of the sedimentary rocks,) among which the 
limestone represents a very conspicuous part ; they 
are, according to Cozzens, as follows : 

1. Granite, beginning at 28th Street, a little east 
of 8th Avenue ; running to North River at 32d 
Street, up to 60th Street ; crops out at 86th Street, 
near the Croton Water Works Receiving Reservoir. 

2. Syenite crops out at the north edge of the Ser- 
pentine, probably but a boulder of greenstone. 

3. Serpentine. — Between 54th and 62d Streets, the 
shore and 10th Avenue, four or more small knolls of 
black serpentine are visible, with scales of silvery 
and golden talc, accompanied by a vein about 12 
feet wide, of anthophyllite. This vein is in a vertical 
position, and actinolite is found embedded in the ser- 
pentine. At the south end there is a vein of carbon- 
ate of lime, resembling much a verde antique, on 
account of containing small specks of serpentine dif- 
fused through it. 

4. Gneiss. — This rock is more abundant on the 
Island than any other ; beginning at the Battery, 

13 



302 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

which it underlies, may be seen at East 14th Street, 
and 18 feet below the surface in 8th Street. It un- 
derlies Governor's Island at its most southern extent, 
passing through New York Island, and running 
through the greater part of Westchester County ; 
forms the rock at the straits called Hell-Gate, and 
then underlying Long Island. The gneiss of New 
York Island is a peculiar variety; has more mica 
than common. 

5. Hornblende Slate. — This rock is associated with 
the gneiss in many parts of the Island — at Spuyten 
Devil bluff, at the north end of the Island, and at 
Manhattanville. 

6. Quartz Rock. — On the 10th Avenue, near 60th 
Street, veins of quartz of various thicknesses, gray 
and granular. 

7. Primitive (so-called) Limestone, of Kingsbridge, 
is a dolomite, and has all the varieties of white, gray 
and light blue, granular and coarse marble. It be- 
gins at the south end ol Dykeman Farm, and runs 
through the middle of the Island to Spuyten Devil 
Creek ; the formation rests on granite. 

8. Diluvium. — This formation covers almost all 
the Island; it is 100 feet in depth on the lower end 
of the Island ; there are found types of all the rocks 
of the valley of the Hudson. 

Dr. R. P. Stevens states that no where on the face 
of the globe could such numerous sections of meta- 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 303 

morphic rocks be seen in so easy and accessible a 
manner as on the upper end of our Island. We find 
gneiss forming the main mass of the Island ; then 
comes the granite, hornblende, anthophyllite and 
other masses. The limestone is found independent 
of the large deposit at Kingsbridge, at 132d Street, 
east of 6th Avenue, reposing conformably upon gneiss, 
which is a continuation southward of the limestone 
of Westchester County. Between 4th and 3d Ave- 
nues, East 123d Street, another bed of limestone, al- 
ways the gneiss either on the eastern and western 
flanks. In the excavation of a culvert in East 50th 
Street, between 3d and 4th Avenues, the axis of 
limestone. 18 feet beneath the street, was visible. 
This fold of limestone has been cut through at the 
Montauk Steel Works, on the mainland at Mott 
Haven, where its base is 100 feet wide and 20 feet 
high, and large masses of limestone were seen thrust 
into the solid gneiss. At Melrose, another bed of 
limestone, traceable to the Harlem River, as well as 
at Hastings ; the large bed underlies the Harlem 
River, continuing southwards. 

Dr. Stevens has good geological reasons for infer- 
ring that the North River flows through fractures 
and abrasions of folds of gneiss and limestone, from 
Haverstraw Bay to the Narrows. 

Limestones increase with extreme slowless; from 
five to ten feet of fragmental deposits will accumulate 



30J: ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

while one of limestone is forming. This conclusion 
is sustained by the ratio in any given period between 
the fragmental rocks of the Apalachians and the 
limestones of the interior basin. It may well be here 
noticed that the different kinds of rocks have been 
conveniently divided into fragmental and crystalline 
rocks. The first are made up of pebbles, sand or 
clay, either deposited as the sediment of moving wa- 
ters as formed and accumulated through other 
means — as ordinary conglomerated sandstones, clay 
rocks, tufas and some limestones. The larger part of 
the rocks here included are made of sedimentary 
material, and are commonly called sedimentary 
rocks. They are stratified rocks, that is, consist of 
layers spread out one over another. Many of them 
are fossiliferous rocks, or contain fossils. The 
crystalline rocks have a crystalline instead of a 
fragmentary character. The grains, when large 
enough to be visible, are crystalline grains, and not 
waterworn particles or fragments of other rocks, 
such as granite, micaschist, basalt. They may have 
been crystallized either from fusion like lava or 
basalt, when they are called igneous rocks, or from 
solution or with some limestones, or through long-con- 
continued heat without fusion. By this method 
sedimentary beds have been altered into granite, 
gneiss, micaschist, and compact limetone into statu- 
ary marble. When a bed originally sedimentary has 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 305 

been metamorphosed into a crystalline one, rocks of 
this kind are called, metamorphic rocks. The former 
division of the rocks in aqueous, volcanic, plutonic 
and metamorphic was made in the infancy of science, 
when all formations, whether stratified or unstrati- 
fied, earthy or crystalline, with or without fossils, 
were alike regarded as of aqueous origin. 

A separate subdivision is made of the calcareous 
rocks or limestone, which are mostly sedimentary in 
original accumulation, but generally lose that appear- 
ance as they solidify. The rock masses of the globe, 
occur under three conditions : 1st, the stratified ; 2d, 
the unstratified ; and 3d, the vein condition. The first 
mavbe considered in the — ], the nature of stratifica- 
tion ; 2, the structure of layers ; 3, the positions of 
strata, their natural positions and dislocations; 4th, 
the general arrangement of strata or their chronologi- 
cal order. 

By chronological order is understood the arrange- 
ment of the rocks of the different continents in a 
chronological series. 

We found that North America has some large 
blanks in the series, which in Europe are full ; and 
in this way various countries are contributing to its 
perfection. The series has been divided in ages, 
based on the progress of life : 

I., The Azoic age, containing no traces of animal 
life. 



306 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

II., The Silurian age, or age of mollusks, the 
mollusks being the dominant race. 

III., The Devonian age, or age of fishes, where 
fishes form the dominant race. 

IV., The Carboniferous age, or age of aerogens, 
characterized by coal plants or aerogens. 

V., The Reptilian age, reptiles the dominant race. 

VI., The Mammalian age, mammals the dominant 
race. 

VII., The age of man. 

In order to explain these divisions more fully, we 
will state of the thickness of the stratified rocks. 
The whole thickness of the rocks in the series is 
fifteen or sixteen miles ; but this includes the sum of 
the whole grouped in one pile. As the series is 
nowhere complete, this cannot be the thickness 
observed in anyone region. The rocks of ^ew York 
down to the azoic, counting all as one series, are 
about 13,000 feet in thickness. They include only 
the Silurian and Devonian (excepting the triassic in 
the southeast). To the north they thin out to a few 
feet, while they thicken southward towards Pensyl- 
vania. The rocks in Pennsylvania include the car- 
boniferous, and the whole thickness is at least 40,000 
feet. In Virginia the thickness is still greater, but no 
exact estimate has been made. In Indiana and the 
other States west it is only 4,000, although extending 
to the top of the carboniferous. The greater part of 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 307 

the continent of North America, east of the Missis- 
sippi, is destitute of rocks above the carboniferous. 

In Europe the rocks of the later periods are far 
more complete than in North America, while the 
older also, according to the estimates stated, exceed 
the American. 

In Great Britain the thickness to the top of the 
carboniferous is over 60,000 feet, and from the carbo- 
niferous to the top of this series little less than 10,000 
feet more. This amount is the sum of the thickest 
deposits of the several formations and not the thick- 
ness observed in any particular place. 

The ages above referred to belonging to rocks such 
as the age of mollusks or silurian and the age of 
fishes, &c, we have another signification in them, 
subdivision of geological time, such as : 

I., Azoic time or age, meaning absence of life. 

II., Polaeozoic time, or ancient life — 

1. The age of mollusks, or Silurian, 

2. " " " fishes, or Devonian, 

3. " u " coal plants, or carboniferous. 
III., Mesozoic time, or mediaeval age, 

4. The age of reptiles. 
IV., Cenozoic time, or recent life, 

5. The age of mammals. 
V., Era of mind, 

6. The as;e of Man. 



308 ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 

We have also the subdivisions into periods, epochs, 
and, according to Lyell, also the Eocene, Miocene 
and Pliocene subdivisions of the age belonging to the 
Tertiary period. 

How long or how far apart time was required of 
the creation and extinction of these periods we have 
no definite data to show ; but all the facts of geology 
tend to dictate an antiquity of which we are begin- 
ning to form but a dim idea. Take for instance one 
single formation, the chalk of the English coast, 
which consists entirely of shells and fragments of 
shells deposited at the bottom of an ancient sea, far 
away from any continent, and take the rate of depo- 
sition at 10 inches' in a century; the chalk is 
more than 1,000 feet in thickness, and would have 
required therefore more than 120,000 years for its 
formation. The fossiliferous beds of Great Brittain, 
as a whole, are more than 7,000 feet in thickness, and 
many which within the United States measure only 
a few inches, on the continent expand into strata of 
immense depth, while others of great importance 
elsewhere are wholly wanting with us (many epochs 
in the Jurassic period) ; for it is evident, that during 
all the different periods in which Great Brittain has 
been dry land, strata have been forming elsewhere, 
not with us. Many strata now existing have been 
formed at the expense of older ones; thus all the 
flint gravels in the southeast ot England have been 



ESSAY ON LIMESTONES. 309 

produced by the destruction of chalk. This again is 
a very slow process. A cliff 500 feet high will be 
worn away at the rate of an inch in a century. When 
a fall of cliff has taken place the fragments serve as 
a protection to the coast, until they have been gradu- 
ally removed by the wave. The Wealden Valley is 
twenty-two miles in breadth ; on these data it has 
been calculated, that the denudation of the Weald 
must have required more than 150,000,000 of years. 
But preceding the appearance of animal life, we 
only know that our globe was at one time in a state 
of universal fusion, and that the crystaline rocks 
underwent a process in which sand, clay, and lime- 
stone were deposited, and these materials formed the 
original crust. 



The Origin of the Alkalies Contained in Soluble 

Glass. 
The two alkalies employed in the manufacture of 
silicate are potash and soda, the oxides of the metals 
potassium and sodium ; both of which were discover- 
ed in 1807 by Sir Humphrey Davy. They were 
decomposed by him by means of a powerful galvanic 
current. Before that time all alkalies and alkaline 
earths were supposed to be elementary bodies. The 
metals have since been prepared by heating in an 
iron retort either the potash or soda, with charcoal, 



310 ORIGIN OF THE ALKALIES 

at a high temperature. By this process, the carbon, 
at the high temperature, is able to take the oxygen 
from the potash or soda, forming a carbon monoxide, 
which escapes as a gas, while the metal, either potas- 
sium or sodium, being volatile at a red heat, distills- 
over. The preparation of these metals is attended 
with many difficulties, and requires special precau- 
tions, as the vapors of these metals not only take tire 
when brought in contact with the air, but decompose 
water, combining with the oxygen, and liberating 
hydrogen ; hence the metallic vapors must be cooled 
with naptha or petroleum, which do not contain any 
oxygen. It is indispensably necessary to distill the 
metals a second time for purifying them and freeing 
them from a black explosive compound, which invari- 
ably forms in the original preparation and has caused 
several fatal accidents. 

Potassium. — Is a bright, silver white metal, which 
can easily be cut with a knife at the ordinary tempera- 
ture, is brittle at 0°, melts at 62°. 5 Fahrenheit, and 
does not become pasty before melting. When heated 
to a temperature somewhat below red heat, potassium 
sublimes, yielding a fine, green-colored vapor. This 
metal rapidly absorbs oxygen, when exposed to the 
air, and becomes converted into a white oxide. 
Thrown into water, one atom of potassium displaces 
one of hydrogen from the water, forming potassium 
hydroxide, or potash. This takes place with such 



CONTAINED IN SOLUBLE GLASS. 311 

force, that the heat developed is sufficient to ignite 
the hydrogen thus set free, and the flame becomes 
tinged with the peculiar purple that is characteristic 
of the potassa compounds, whilst the water attains 
an alkaline reation from the potash which is formed. 
Potassium also combines directly with chlorine, sul- 
phur, and many other non-metals, evolving heat and 
light. 

The original source of potassium compounds is the 
felspar of the granite rocks, containing from ten to 
twelve per cent., and mica, containing from live to 
six per cent, of potash. Up to the present time this 
source has not been used for the manufacture of the 
potassium salts, for the reason that no cheap and 
easy mode has yet made available for separating the 
potash from the silicic acid, with which it is com- 
bined in felspar and mica. The grand natural source 
from which the supply of potash is obtained is the 
ashes of wood and other vegetable matter. The 
potassium exists in the plants previous to combustion, 
having been absorbed by them from the soils in 
which they grow; the soils obtain the potash from 
the decomposition of rocks, clay, etc. It is also 
found, combined with other substances, in sea water. 
Potash is now generally obtained from the ashes of 
plants, from which it is leached out, or by filtering 
water through them and boiling down the clear 
liquid, which, on evaporation, produces the crude 



312 ORIGIN OF THE ALKALIES 

potash, which is then purified. It used to be manu- 
factured to a great extent in the States of New York, 
Ohio and Michigan, and was called pearl ash, and 
when perfectly refined, pearl or pot tartar. Some of 
the other potassium salts, such as the nitrate and 
chloride, are found in large quantities in various 
localities as deposits on the surface, or in the interior 
of the earth. The sources of nitrate of potash, or 
saltpetre, have been sufficiently well knowm. The 
chloride of potassium occurs in beds, together with 
rock salt, in Stassfurth, near Halle, in Prussia, in 
considerable quantities, and is largely employed by 
gunpowder manufacturers for the conversion of nit- 
rate of soda into that of potash. There have been 
already described thirteen varieties, all containing 
the chloride with the salt. The utilization of sea 
water for the extraction of potash salts is about to be 
tried in Europe on a large scale. All potassium salts 
are soluble in water, and impart a violet color to 
flame, The spectrum of this flame is distinguished 
by two bright lines, one red, and one violet. 

Sodium. — This metal resembles in external appear- 
ance the metal potassium. It is, however, procured 
more easily than the latter, by reducing the carbon- 
ate of soda in the presence of carbon. It is now 
manufactured in large quantities for the preparation 
of other metals, especially magnesium and aluminum, 
as potassium was formerly used for the same purpose. 



CONTAINED IN SOLUBLE GLASS. 313 

The metal distills over, and is condensed in petro- 
leum. It is a silver-white metal, soft at ordinary 
temperature, melting at 95.6° and volatilizing below 
a red heat. When thrown upon water it floats and 
rapidly decomposes the same with disengagement of 
hydrogen, soda being formed. If the water be hot, 
or be thickened with starch, the globule of the metal 
becomes so much heated as to enable the hydrogen 
to take fire. 

The Compounds of Sodium are very widely diffused, 
being contained in enormous quantities in the primi- 
tive granitic rocks. They are readily obtained from 
sea-water, which contains nearly three per cent, of 
chloride of sodium or the common salt of the kitchen. 
There are large deposits of salt in Galicia, Prussia, 
England, and this country, (as is the case in Louis- 
iana and Nevada and on the island of San Domingo) 
and it was formerly obtained from the ashes of sea 
plants, or kelp, in the same manner as potash was 
prepared from land plants. At present, however, 
the carbonate of soda is manufactured on an enor- 
mously large scale from the sea-salt, especially in 
England, and is known in commerce as soda-ash, 
which is indispensable in glass-making, soap-manu- 
facture, bleaching, and for various other purposes in 
the arts. No less than two hundred thousand tons 
of salt are annually consumed in the alkali works of 
Great Britain. 



314 ORIGIN OF THE ALKALIES. 

Soda-ash is prepared from sea-salt by a series of 
chemical operations, such as that of the production 
of the sulphate or salt-cake, and the reduction of that 
to soda-ash. The first is obtained by heating oil of 
vitriol with common salt, in a reverberatory furnace, 
whereby the sodium is separated from the chlorine 
with which it is combined, and uites with oxygen 
and sulphuric acid to form sulphate of soda, or anhy- 
drous glauber salt. The liberated chlorine combines 
with the hydrogen of the water contained in the sul- 
phuric acid, to form hydrochloric acid, which is 
collected as a commercial article. The sulphate of 
soda then undergoes the second process of pulverizing 
the same (salt-cake) and heating it w T ith pulverized 
chalk and charcoal. The product is called black-ash. 
By lixiviation and evaporating down the solution (the 
heated air passing over a leaden pan containing the 
liquid) and calcining afterwards the residue, the 
soda-ash of commerce is obtained. It contains from 
from forty-eight to fifty-six per cent, of pure caustic 
soda, combined as carbonate and hydrate, the re- 
mainder being impurities, consisting generally of 
sulphate, sulphite and chloride. If soda-ash be dis- 
solved and the saturated solution allowed to stand, 
large transparent crystals of the hydrated carbonate, 
known as soda crystals, are obtained. These are 
used to soften water for washing purposes. 

Carbonate of soda also occurs in certain localities 



SILICA, OK SAND. 315 

as an efflorescence on the soil and in the beds of 
dried up lakes. 

Silica or Sand, Geologically, Chemically and 
Technically Considered. 

[Read before the Polytechnic Institute.] 

Sand is the term generally applied to all powdered 
stone, but pure sand consists of particles of quartz, silex 
or silica, which is composed of silicon and oxygen ; 
and its chemical symbol, under the new atomic weight 
given to silicon, is Si, 2 . These particles, which 
are more or less rounded, are of a white, gray or 
grayish red color, and are unquestionably derived 
originally from a compact rock, called the sandstone 
formation. Sand may, however, be granitic, con- 
taining particles of felspar. This is the case when it 
has not been exposed to atmospheric agents long 
enough to decompose it. Sand consisting of angular 
grains is mostly employed for mortar or building 
purposes. The rock called sandstone is made up of 
agglutinated sand or pebbles and fragments of the 
same. It may be a siliceous, granitic, porphyritic, 
basaltic or calcareous sandstone, according to the 
material which occurs with it in nature : and it may 
be a compact, friable, ferruginous or concretionary 
sandstone, according to its structure. Again, if the 
sandstone glistens with scales of mica, it is called a 



316 SILICA, OR SAND. 

micaceous sandstone; if much clay is mixed with the 
sand, it is called an argillaceous sandstone; and if 
thi> contains lime, it is called marly sandstone. If 
the quartz or sand peebles are rounded, and are held 
together in a conglomerate, the result is called a 
pudding-stone; and if they are angular, a breccia. 

The flexible sandstone, or itacolumite, is a schistose 
quartz rock. 

Buhrstone is a cellular siliceous rock. 

The millstone, or gritrock, is composed of siliceous 
pebbles. 

Siliceous schist is a flinty quartz rock. 

Jasper rock is likewise a flinty siliceous rock. 

Obsidian volcanic glass, or pumicestone, pitchstone, 
pearlstone, are all siliceous or sandy rocks, having a 
volcanic origin. 

Sand, if transparent, bears the name of quartz, the 
constituent of a great many rocks, of both the primi- 
tive and newer formations. Quartz crystallizes in 
six sided prisms, with no apparent cleavage, of all 
degrees of transparency and opacity, and of all colors, 
from white and yellow green to black, with inter- 
mediate amethystine, rose and smoky tints. Pure 
pellucid quartz is called rock crystal, or pure silica. 

Quartz is infusible before the blow-pipe, but when 
heated with soda, fuses easily to a glass. If quartz 
has colored bands, it is called agate, and without 
bands or clouds, it is chalcedony. When massive, of 



SILICA, OR SAND. 317 

dark and dull color, with translucent edges, it is 
called flint ; if with a splintery fracture, it is horn- . 
stone, like the Arkansas whetstone. When it is still 
more opaque, or black, it is the Lyclian stone or 
basanite ; of a dull red, yellow or brown color, and 
opaque, it is jasper; when in aggregated grains, it is 
called quartzite, and when in loose, incoherent grains, 
it is the ordinary sand, which is frequently trans- 
parent. Sandstone belongs to all ages, from the 
lower silurian to the most recent period, but the azoic 
rocks, which are nearly all crystalline, contain some 
sandstone; and the metaniorphic, which are the most 
ancient rocks, and comprise granite, gneiss and sye- 
nite, consists largely of quartz. Certain dark red 
sandstone known as the freestone of New Jersey 
and Connecticut, and the general term, new red sand- 
stone is applied to this formation, which is more 
recent than coal, while the old red sandstone lies 
below the coal, and above the great laurentian for- 
mation. Freestone is an excellent building material; 
in Isew York it is used more than any other stone. 
Trinity church, in Broadway, and many other public 
and private buildings, serve as examples ; also the 
greater part of the flagstones which are brought to 
this city from Connecticut. 

The green sand of Xew Jersey, which has for the 
last thirty years enhanced the agricultural prosperity 
of the lands of that State, and which belongs to the 



318 

cretaceous formation, is a sandstone containing iron 
and potash. 

A short description may prove interesting : 
Ages and ages ago. in the mists of geological anti- 
quity, an ocean lapped the margin of the land that 
extends from the first to the second city of this conti- 
nent. The line that connects New York and Phila- 
delphia, when straight drawn, will be seen to cross 
the Delaware River at its eastermost angle, just south 
of Trenton. In the period referred to, such a line 
would have stretched mostly on dry land; but for a 
part of the distance it would have crossed friths and 
arms of the sea, and broad marine swamps and mead- 
ows and lagoons, then growing rank with strange 
flora. It would have passed over broad reaches of 
warm shoal water, in which huge saurian reptiles 
disported, and along oozy and slimy beds, where 
great turtles were sleeping. Enormous sharks, also, 
darted after their prey through waters that teemed 
with scaly life. Down at the bottom of this ancient 
sea there were myriads of minute creatures, of shape 
and in size not unlike a tobacco seed, only a step 
advanced from vegetable life in their development 
and habits. So low were they in the scale of being 
that the naturalist still expresses a doubt whether 
they had higher than a vegetable life. But minute, 
humble and beyond the ken of any eye but the All- 
seeing, as were these microscopic atoms, — these tiny 



SILICA, OR SAND. 319 

animalcules — these many chambered organisms, they 
were in their way vastly more useful than the giant 
reptiles that swam over them, and sprawled in the 
mud through which these little shells were dispersed. 
For now that all this dim and ancient life is exhumed 
from its geological grave, now when the spade of the 
laborer throws up clay, and shell, and mud, and claw 
and tooth from the cool, sunless depths where they 
have slumbered, heaven knows how long, we find 
that these mites and pin-heads of the old ocean have 
left us a broad, deep and exhaust! ess bed of material, 
as valuable in its way as the vein of silver in the hill, 
or the stratum of coal in the mountain side. The 
greatest of the natural laws are few and simple. The 
sun is, and ever has been, the grand source of light. 
Afar back in those cycles, compared with which the 
period of human history is as the span of a man's 
hand in contrast with the breadth of a continent, 
sunlight was drawing carbon from the air, and build- 
ing, cell by cell and foot by foot, great tropical 
forests, rich in every form of vegetable life. By 
crashes and earthquakes, the date and extent of 
which can never be estimated by human geology, 
these forests with all the opulence of their vegetable 
glory were plunged into fathomless pits, overwhelmed 
with mountains of earth and stone, and deluged with 
vast avalanches of mud. Compressed by the mass 
above and roasted by the central fires, these ancient 



320 SILICA, OK SAND. 

forests were converted into coal measures, and now 
we drive our millions of spindles, we speed across 
oceans, we span continents, we drive printing presses, 
and light our studies with carbon separated so long 
ago by the great Alchemist, and stored in this mys- 
terious way for the use of unborn millions of men. 
In the same way great magazines of plant-food have 
been prepared by the action of obscure animal life, 
and by similar convulsions or slow upheavals, gar- 
nered up for a future agriculture. 

Long and careful research may eventually disclose 
the precise contour of this ancient sea-shore. All we 
now know, is that a substance we call greensand 
occurs throughout the cretaceous belt of l\ew Jersev. 
Draw a line from the shore just south of Long Branch 
to Xew Brunswick and it will run across the creta- 
ceous bed at right angles, and cut three distinct beds 
or layers of greensand. The marl or greensand was 
probably deposited at three Epochs, and the different 
layers represent three periods of change, by which 
these beds became submerged and covered with sand. 
Of course the depth of water, the number and size of 
the organic creatures, and the amount of vegetable 
debris was different at various points along this 
margin. Where a harbor was deep, concave and 
land-locked, the deposit of mud would be deep and 
-even. The little polythalmia would multiply and 
work undisturbed. "When such a bed became over- 



SILICA, OR SAND. 321 

whelmed with a mass of ocean sand, we should 
expect to find a layer many feet thick, alike in all its- 
parts, and equally rich in animal remains. This i& 
the description of the best marl beds as yet uncov- 
ered in New Jersey. In waters that were shoaler or 
nearer the margin and overhung with forests, or 
where rivers brought down a mixed debris and some- 
times flung it rudely and sometimes laid it quietly 
upon the bottom of a bay or lagoon, we should expect 
a chaotic and irregular deposit. This is just the con- 
dition disclosed by the spade, the borer and the 
excavator in the marl beds of New Jersey. Marl as 
a deposit in the earth, having more or less value as 
a fertilizer, occurs in many parts of the world, and 
has been in use by the farmers of England and France 
for several generations. But the New Jersey deposit 
is quite different from common marl, and much more 
valuable. By the word marl the English geologist 
understands a bed of clay or alumina mixed with 
sand, with considerable carbonate of lime. On soils 
requiring alumina, as most sandy lands and where 
lime is not abundant, such marl is a useful applica- 
tion and pays for transporting short distances. But 
it is the greensand, the result of the life and death of 
myriads of small sea animals, that gives New Jersey 
marl its peculiar value, and makes it not only a local 
but a commercial fertilizer. 

Greensand is found in many other parts of the 



322 SILICA, OR BAND. 

world, and especially along the Atlantic coast. Pro- 
fessor Bailey examined a specimen taken from the 
depth of 140 feet in an artesian well at Charleston ; 
and the soundings of the Coast Survey brought up 
from the depths of the ocean, in and near the Gulf 
Stream, a substance which was found identical in 
appearance with the contents of the Squankum beds. 

Ehrenberg, found the rounded particles to be 
the casts of minute shells. The shells themselves 
have disappeared, but their material form has been 
retained in the more durable silicate of iron. This 
silicate of iron is mixed with phosphate of lime 
or phosphoric acid. The latter is no doubt of animal 
origin. Sea water and acids from the soil have eaten 
away some of the carbonate of lime, but the phos- 
phoric acid remains and gives the deposit its greatest 
agricultural value. 

The cretaceous belt of New Jersey, in most parts 
of which greensand is found, extends from a line con- 
necting Trenton and New Brunswick, on the north- 
west, to a line nearly parallel with this, but about ten 
miles south-east, connecting the mouth of Shark 
River (a little south of Long Branch) with Salem on 
the Delaware. The region thus bounded on the 
north and south extends from Raritan Bay to Dela- 
ware River, being nearly fifteen miles wide on the 
Atlantic side of the State and not over five miles 
wide on the Delaware side. There are three beds or 



SILICA, OR SAND. 323 

layers of greensand in the cretaceous belt, but the 
upper or newest deposit runs over into the tertiary 
or sandy formation that takes in all Jersey south of 
the marl beds. The general bearing or strike of 
these beds is north fifty-four degrees east, and they 
all dip or run away under the sandy deposit above 
them, getting twenty-five or thirty feet lower each 
mile as one passes to the southeast. The region over 
wdrich these beds may be reached by digging from 
three to fifty feet, is ninety miles in length and on 
an average about seven or eight in width, and its area 
is nine hundred square miles. The strata themselves 
are fifteen to thirty feet thick. Near streams the 
sand and clay that covers these beds have been washed 
away ; hence the marl is discovered by looking along 
the banks of the brooks that run from the cretaceous 
lands, either northwest into the Delaware, or south- 
east into the Atlantic. In places, the marl is within 
three or four feet of the surface, so by removing a 
slight top layer of sandy loam the bed may be reached . 
but generally a stratum several feet thick, of spurious 
or useless marl covers the greensand. 

As already stated, sand and quartz are pure silica; 
still there is no mineral that assumes so many forms 
and colors as quartz, though none is more easily dis- 
tinguished. Its characteristic features are : 

1. Its hardness, which is from 6.5 to 7, enabling it 
to scratch glass with facility. 



324 silica, or sand. 

2. Its infusibility ; when heated alone before the 
blow-pipe it does not melt. 

3. Its insolubility, as it is not, like limestone, 
attacked by the strong mineral acid^. 

4. Its want of cleavage, which has been mentioned 
above. This is one of the first characteristics of 
quartz. 

5. Its crystalline character, occurring mostly in 
in six-sided prisms, more or less modified and termi- 
nated. 

6. Its low specific gravity of 2.5 to 2.7, is an un- 
failing distinctive character of quartz. 

Rock crystal is a pure pellucid quartz, and was 
known by the ancients under the name of crystallos, 
meaning ice. It is used for optical instruments, 
spectacle glasses, and cut with facets, for jewelry. 
The crystals are often called real California diamonds. 
In ancient times it was cut into cups and vases, and 
it is said that on hearing of his final overthrow, Nero 
dashed into pieces a cup which was worth $3,000. 
To this class of quartz belongs the finest ornaments 
which adorn the palaces of ancient and modern times ; 
and some forms, such as amethyst, rose quarts, false 
topaz, smoky quartz, known as Scotch pebbles, or 
cairngorm, the favorite ornaments of the sportsmen 
of the Highlands, are used as jewels. 

Milky quartz, or greasy quartz. 

Prase is of leek green color. 



SILICA, OR SAND. 825 

Avanturine, more commonly known as gold-stone, 
is a quartz spangled throughout with scales of golden 
yellow mica, although the artificial imitation looks 
more beautiful than natural stone. 

Chalcedony is a translucent variety of quartz, which 
often lines the cavities of other rocks, and in the form 
of stalactites, which are then called icicles of chalce- 
dony, and forming grottoes several feet in diameter. 
We find such in the Faroe Islands, in Florida, and in 
many volcanic rocks, probably owing to siliceous 
waters filtering at some period through the rock, and 
deposited by their concentration. Chrysoprase is but 
an apple-green chalcedony. 

The camelian is a bright red chalcedony, of a 
clear, rich, flesh-colored tint ; it is a great favorite 
with the Japanese. 

The sard is a deep brownish red chalcedony. 

Agate is a variegated chalcedony, and its colors are 
distributed in clouds, spots, or consecutive lines, 
which may be straight, circular or zigzag forms. 
When the outlines are angular, resembling a fortifi- 
cation, it is called a fortification agate ; if dendritic 
or moss-like delineations, arising from disseminated 
oxide of iron or manganese, it is called mocha stone 
or moss agate. The color of agate is much darkened 
by boiling the stone in oil, and then dropping it into 
sulphuric acid ; a little oil is absorbed by some of the 
layers and the acid blackens or chars it. 

14 



326 SILICA, OR SAND. 

The onyx is an agate, where the colors are arranged 
in flat horizontal layers, formed usually of light clear 
brown and an opaque white. When this stone is a 
sard and white chalcedony in alternate layers, it is 
called sardonyx. 

The antique cameos and sculptured small orna- 
ments from onyx are well known, such as the Man- 
tuan vase, at Brunswick, seven inches high and two 
and one-half inches broad, representing a cream pot, 
and cut from a single stone ; having white and yellow 
groups of raised figures, representing Ceres and Trip- 
tolemus in search of Proserpine. 

The cat's eye is a greenish gray translucent chal- 
cadony, having an opalescence or reflection, like the 
eye of a cat, when cut with a spheroidal surface, 
probably owing to filaments of asbestos. 

The jasper is a dull red siliceous rock, containing 
some clay and yellow or red oxyd of iron, and lias all 
the varieties of riband, Egyptian resin and porcelain, 
all assuming a high lustre and polish. 

Bloodstone or heliotrope, is of a deep green color, 
slightly translucent, and containing red spots, resem- 
bling red drops of blood ; many superstitious people 
have attached much importance to these red spots, 
and a bust of Christ in the Paris museum represents 
quite natural blood drops. 

The lydian, or touchstone, is a velvet black, sili- 
ceous stone, or flinty jasper, which is used on account 



SILICA, OR SAND. 327 

of its hardness and black color for trying the purity 
of the precious metals. This is done by comparing 
the color of the tracing left on it with that of an alloy 
of known character. 

Petrified wood, called also silicified wood, contain- 
ing the texture of the original wood, which when 
sawn across and polished is remarkably beautiful. 

Quartz crystals are often found inclosed with other 
minerals, such as rutile, asbestos, actinolite and 
topaz, oxyd of iron, tourmaline, chlorite and anthra- 
cite coal; those containing the rutile look as if 
needles or fine hairs passed through them in every 
direction, and when cut for jewelry, pass by the name 
of love's arrows, oy fleches <P amour. 

The opal, one of the most fashionable jewels, is 
silica, with some water ; it exhibits internal reflec- 
tions of rainbow colors, and forms a gem of rare 
beauty ; it is usually cut with a convex surface. 
Among the varieties of opal are fire-opal or girasol ; 
it has a yellow, bright hyacinth, or fire-red reflections. 
The common or semi-opal, has a milky opalescence, 
but does not reflect a play of colors. 

Hydrophane, cacholong, hyalite, menilite, wood 
opal, jasper, siliceous sinter, pearl sinter and fabasheer, 
all belong to the same class of silicious minerals, and 
are of more interest to the mineralogist than to the 
general reader. 

Among all the discoveries relating to the arts, none- 



328 SILICA, OR SAND. 

exceed in importance and usefulness to mankind, the 
art of glass making. Glass is a chemical combina- 
tion of sand and alkali or alkaline earth, heated to 
fusion, and presenting after fusion a transparent and 
hard body. The benefits conferred by it upon all 
classes of human society have been immense ; the 
spectacle, the microscope, the telescope, and spectro- 
scope, have showered incalculable blessings upon the 
world, and there are probably still greater discoveries 
in store for us. The history of the manufacture of 
glass may be traced from the present time through 
that of the Romans and Phoenicians, to the Egyp- 
tians, some of whose productions remain to this age. 
The art flourished in Tyre, in Alexandria, and lastly 
in Rome ; and after being depressed for some ages, 
again revived under the Venetians, who transmitted 
the improved art to the rest of the nations of Europe. 
Pliny relates that glass was first discovered by acci- 
dent in Syria, at the mouth of the river Belus, by 
certain merchants driven thither by the fortune of 
the sea and obliged to remain there and dress their 
victuals by making a fire in the ground. There 
being great abundance of the herb kali in that 
vicinity, the ashes of the plant, mixed and incor- 
porated with the sand, formed glass. 

Boerhave says, that the art of glass making is of 
ancient origin, being first cultivated in Egypt, while 
glass was rendered malleable in the age of Tiberius, 



SILICA, OR SAND. 329 

and is now manufactured in the greatest perfection. 
It is one of the most useful arts to mankind ; for by 
it in conjunction with the grinder's help, we obviate 
the natural infirmities of the eye. Without it, old 
people, and those whose optic nerves are affected, 
would be debarred the knowledge of reading letters 
or books, and would be unable to sit within doors, or 
in a coach or ship, and see all things clearly around 
them, yet without being exposed to the scourging 
heat or freezing cold, or being annoyed with the east 
wind, or the ingress or extraneous filth. Pure glass 
will scarcely receive any stain, and is easily cleansed 
again. Although the essential constituents of glass 
are silex and alkali, it generally contains other sub- 
stances, such as metallic oxides, which are designed 
to modify its external character of hardness, fusi- 
bility, brilliancy, color and transparency. Many 
kinds of glass contain either potash or soda; the first 
is not much employed by the manufacturers of com- 
mon glass. Some kinds contain lime and oxide of 
lead and alumina and oxide of iron ; the two latter 
are however mere accidental impurities. The follow- 
ing constitute the principal materials of glass: 

1. Silex, or sand, which is, as already stated, very 
abundant on the globe ; the sand mostly employed is 
the white sand, either obtained from the disintegrated 
sandstone rocks, which are numerous in the United 
States, as in Missouri, near St. Genevieve, and Berk- 



330 SILICA, OR SAND. 

shire county, Mass. ; or from the river sand which is 
found in large beds of white sand at Maurice river, 
in New Jersey and Florida. Drift sand is brought 
by the winds from the sea coasts or deserts, but 
mostly from the lower sands of sea shores, as we find 
them for 100 miles on the Long Island shore ; this 
sand when washed forms a good sand for glass. 

The infusorial deposits of the siliceous shells, called 
the diatoms, which form immense deposits both in- 
land and on the coasts, yield a good material for the 
manufacture of glass. 

2. Alkali. If potash is used, the purified pearlash 
is employed, particularly for plate glass and the fewer 
kinds of crown glass, as also soda ash, which is the 
carbonate of soda, is also used for the better qualities 
of glass ; while sulphate of potash, glauber salt, salt- 
cake or common salt are employed for common glass. 

3. Lime, either as air-slaked, quick-lime, or as car- 
bonate of lime, such as marble or chalk, is used for 
the manufacture of green glass. 

4. Oxide of lead, or litharge, or red lead, are use- 
fully employed in the manufacture. 

5. Certain materials are used for improving or 
purifying the glass, such as the binoxide of manganese, 
nitre, arseneous acid and white arsenic. Oxide of 
lead, in the form of minium, is principally used in 
flint glass, as it increases its brilliancy, the purity of 
its color and the power of its refraction. The binoxide 



331 

of manganese, was formerly known as glass-maker's 
soap ; its effect is ascribed to the facility with which 
it gives up its oxygen, which combines with the 
coloring principles and destroys them. In other 
words, it converts the protoxide of iron, which would 
give the glass a dark green color, into a sesquioxide, 
which is of higher oxydation and which leaves the 
glass clearer. 

Borax and boracic acid, as also the borate of lime, 
called Hayesine, from Peru, are like the Chili salt- 
petre, very useful and powerful agents for accelerating 
the fluxing of the silex. 

The silex mostly used in England is sea sand, and 
not river sand, as is extensively used in the United 
States ; it consists chiefly of quartz, and the finest 
qualities are obtained from Alum Bay, in the Isle of 
Wight, and from near Lyon, on the coast of Norfolk ; 
the black flint, when raised to a red heat, and plunged 
in cold water, is frequently used, and probably gave 
the name to a species of glass, flint glass or crystal 
glass. 

The manufacture of glass is divided into several 
classes : 

A. Window glass, which includes, 

1. Crown glass. 

2. Sheet glass. 

3. Brown plate, silvered or unsilvered. 

4. Colored sheet, pot metal or flashed. 



332 



B. Painted and other kinds of ornamental window 



glass. 

0. Cast plate glass. 

a. Rough plate. 

b. Pressed plate. 

c. Rolled plate. 

D. Bottle glass. 

1. Ordinary bottle glass. 

2. Moulded bottle glass. 

3. Medicinal bottles. 

4. Tubing. 

E. Glass for chemical and philosophical purposes, 
retorts, reservoirs, large water pipes, etc., etc. 

F. Flint or crystal glass, with or without lead; 
white, colored, ornamented, for table ware, etc. 

1. Blown. 

2. Moulded and pressed. 

3. Cut and engraved. 

4. Reticulated and spun with a variety of colors, 
incrusted, flashed, enameled of all colors, opalescent, 
imitation of alabaster, gilt, gelatinized, silvered. 

5. Glass mosaic, miliflori, aventurine and Vene- 
tian glass weights. 

6. Beads, and imitation of pearls, etc. 

7. Chandeliers, candlesticks, and lamp aparatus. 
<i. Optical glass, flint and crown. 

1. Rough disks of flint and crown, to make 



SILIGA, OR SAND. 333 

lenses for telescopes, microscopes, stereoscopes, spec- 
troscopes, daguerreotype and ealotype apparatus. 

2. Flint and crown, blown, or cast in plates for 
the optician. 

3. Fine glass for microscopes. 

4. Refractive apparatus, prismatic lenses for 
lighthouses. 

The above classification was made at .the London 
universal exhibition of 1851. Another classification 
is made in the following kinds, according to their 
constituent materials : 

1. The soluble glass, silicate of soda or potash, or 
both alkalies combined with silica. 

2. Bohemian glass, a silicate of potash and lime. 

3. Crown, or spread, a silicate of soda and lime. 

4. Plate, a silicate of soda and lime cast into plates. 

5. Bottle, a silicate of potassa, lime, alumina and 
oxide of iron. 

6. Crystal, silicate of potash and oxide of lead. 

7. Flint contains more lead than the last. 

8. Strass, or paste, contains still more lead than 
flint. 

9. Enameled and colored glass, from all the above 
except No. 1 and No. 5. 

An excess of alkali is often used in order to obtain 
a more fusible glass, but such glass is more readily 
acted upon by acids ; even when water is boiled in it, 
it will readily convert red litmus to blue, on account 



334 SILICA, OR SAND. 

of its alkali ; caustic alkali attacks glass by dissolving 
the silica, andfluohydric acid decompose glass readily. 

As regards the physical characters of glass, it may 
be remarked that all glass is fusible, but the temper- 
ature for different kinds is different ; oxide of lead, or 
a larger amount of alkaline silicate imparts more 
ready fusibility, and a similar effect is produced by 
borax. Bottle glass, containing oxide of iron and 
aluminum and less alkali, is more difficult of fusion 
than other kinds. When melted glass is cooled it is 
perfectly flexible and plastic before it is cooled down 
to rigidity ; the softer kinds, such as flint or borax 
glass, when heated, begin to be plastic below a red 
heat ; when in the plastic state pieces will unite 
together as firmly as if they were melted together. 
When glass is much softened by heat, it may be 
readily drawn out into rods or tubes, or, if passed 
around a revolving wheel, into minute flexible threads, 
called thin glass hairs, and these properties causes the 
glass to be formed into numberless shapes demanded 
by the wants of civilized life. 

Glass conducts heat so imperfectly, that the end of 
a rod heated to whiteness may be held with safety by 
the hand, within an inch or two of the heated end ; 
the bad conducting power of glass, combined with 
the cohesive force of its particles, gave rise to the 
manufacture of Prince Rupert's drops, which are 
pear-shaped pieces of glass, with a long thin stem, 



335 

made by dropping melted glass into water; the bulb 
may be struck without injury, but if the smallest 
particle of the stem be broken off, the whole drop 
flies into powder with explosive noise and violence, 
owing to the bad conducting power of glass, com- 
bined with the cohesive force of its particles. Glass 
expands when heated and contracts on cooling, which 
must be done very slowly, in order to allow the 
particles to come uniformly close together. If sud- 
denly cooled by dropping melted glass into water, 
the outside suddenly assumes the rigid and more 
contracted form, while the interior is still soft and 
expanded from the bad conducting power of the glass. 
When thoroughly, cooled, the interior must still 
retain the expanded state, so contrary to its cohesive 
force at common temperature, and when the cohesion 
of the outer layer is in the least disturbed, as by a 
scratch or slight fracture, the whole of the cohesive 
force exerts its power to fracture the entire mass. 
From this fact, it is necessary to cool more slowly 
than can be done in the air and the process of anneal- 
ing is indispensable. This consists in placing a glass 
vessel, as soon as made, and while still hot in 
one end of a long annealing oven, with a fire 
at this end and gradually pushing to the further 
or cold end of the oven ; the particles of the 
interior and exterior have then time to arrange 
themselves uniformly according to their cohesive 



336 SILICA, OR SAND. 

force at eacli point of temperature, until they be- 
come perfectly rigid. 

Glas< is very elastic, as is easily shown by any strip 
of window glass, but more strikingly by hollow balls 
suspended by strings. On playing with your lingers 
on the windows, the harmonious sounds indicate their 
elasticity. A glass harmonicon consists of small strips 
of window glass of different sizes, suspended on par- 
allel strings. They may be graduated to any scale; 
goblets of various sizes are also sometimes employed 
in a similar manner, and are made to vibrate by pass- 
ing the moistened finger around their upper edges. 

As has been stated, one of the various kinds of 
glass is the soluble glass, or silicate of soda or pottassa, 
or both combined, and on account of an excess of 
alkali, has become a soluble salt. It is termed also 
water glass, and has the formala, 2 KO. or Na 03, 
Si O 3 , according to the old notation. The uses of 
silicate of soda are for the application to wood and 
textile fabrics, as a paint and substitute of dunging 
salt in calico printing, have been fully discribed in 
the proceeding treatise. 

The Bohemian glass is manufactured largely in 
Bohemia, from 100 parts of silica, purified pearlash, 
sixty parts, and carbonate of lime, sixteen parts. 
These three substances are fritted in a reverberatory 
oven called calcar, and while still red hot, thrown 
into the glass pots, already in a glowing heat, and 



337 

there melted, and when perfectly liquid, scooped out 
or taken out with an iron rod. The objects of fritting 
are to expel moisture and carbonic acid, and produce 
a caking of the materials, which facilitates the fusion. 
This glass is employed for making panes, tumblers 
and other articles, which are characterized by their 
beauty when compared with flint and crystal glass. 
They also possess greater infusibility and resistance 
to chemical agents ; for this reason it has become 
celebrated and indispensable in the laboratories. 

The vial and spread glass has a similar composi- 
tion to the last described, and contains silica, soda, 
lime and sometimes potash in similar proportions, as 
before ; but a smaller amount of soda is requisite than 
of potash, because soda has a lower equivalent. For 
spread or common window glass, a considerable 
quantity of soda is used in order to flux the materials 
rapidly, and the addition of salt is believed to clear 
the glass. 

For making window panes, a lump of melted glass 
is taken out of the pot, blown and elongated in to a 
pear, then blown and rolled into a cylinder, which is slit 
longtudinally on one side for its whole length ; it is 
then placed on the smooth hearth of the flattening 
kiln, with the slit side uppermost, and when softened 
by heat, is opened, until it spreads out upon the 
hearth, a flattened sheet. 

Crown glass is composed of materials similar to 



338 SILICA, OR SAND. 

those of the preceding kind, but they are generally 
poorer; to 100 parts silica, sixty parts soda ash, 
eight parts potash, ten parts lime, four parts saltpeter 
or nitrate of soda, one-eight part of white arsenic is 
thrown in the melting pot. The mixed materials are 
placed in a furnace, wdiich is of rectangular construc- 
tion, containing from four to six clay pots, of the 
capacity of half a ton of glass, and is now quickly 
heated up to the melting point. When the first 
charge is melted down, the next is thrown in, and so 
on until the pot is sufficiently filled. The tempera- 
ture is then lowered for a few hours, during which 
some of the foreign matters subside, and the glass all 
rises to the top, when, after raising the fire a little, it 
is skimmed. It is called crow r n glass on account of 
the shape it assumes when broken ofi from the coal 
formed at the end of the iron rod called the punto. 

Plate glass is composed of 100 parts silex, thirty- 
three parts carbonate of soda, twenty parts carbonate 
of lime, and a very small proportion of paroxide of 
manganese ; say one-half part. This glass is usually 
cast into large plates, for mirrors and large panes ; all 
materials must be very pure. The arrangement for 
casting the ton of glass into the forms are very inter- 
esting, and must be seen personally, at St. Gobin, in 
France, or at Kavenhead, in England, to be appreci- 
ated. 

Bottle glass is composed of the coarsest materials 



SILICA, OR SAND. 339 

of silex, soda, lime, oxide of iron, and clay. It is 
generally of less specific gravity than any other 
variety; it is tougher and resists chemical action. 
In JSTew Jersey, green sand is added to spread glas< 
for beer bottles, etc., etc. 

Lead glass comprises three varieties, crystal, flint 
glass, and strass, differing in the proportions of lith- 
arge and red lead they contain ; it may be shown 
that crystal glass contains but little oxide of lead, in 
comparison to the famous paste called strass, which 
contains more oxide of lead than silica. The crystal 
glass is composed of 100 parts of silica, ten parts 
oxyd of lead, thirty -five parts purified potash, and 
thirteen parts carbonate of lime. The common flint 
glass contains 100 parts silica, sixty-six parts oxide of 
lead, twenty-six parts purified potash, and seven 
part saltpeter. Optical glass contains 100 parts 
silica, 100 parts oxyd of lead, twenty-three parts 
purified potash, and a very small proportion of salt- 
petre and borax. Strass contains 100 parts silica T 
133 parts oxyd of lead, and thirteen parts purified 
potash. The dried and mingled materials are then 
thrown into the white-hot melting pots, and when 
full of melted glass, the mouths of the oven are closed. 
Some heavy combinations of lead sink to the bottom, 
while the salts, which will not incorporate with the 
glass, rise to the top as a scum, called glass gall and 
sandiver. The greater part of this is skimmed off', 



340 SILICA, OR SAND. 

JStrass is the basis of a beautiful glass, and was in- 
vented in the seventeenth century by a man named 
Strass, of Strasburgh, who iirst conceived the import- 
ance of imitating- the real gems as respects their 
hardness, specific gravity, and refraction of light, 
and the white mass obtained by his receipt has pro- 
duced a beautiful base for imitating the diamond, the 
rock crystal, and the white topaz. It is now manu- 
factured in large quantities in France, as a base also 
for the production of all other colored gems, such as 
ruby, emerald, sapphire, amethyst, aquamarine, gar- 
net, chrysoprose, opal, hyacinth, rubellite, indigolite, 
or blue turmaline, chrysolite, turquoise, lazulite, and 
agate. Although the properties which are usually 
considered as constituting excellence in glass for 
ordinary purposes may be easily obtained, yet in 
glasses for optical instruments, and to be employed 
in the examination of objects so remote and so min- 
ute as to require the most undeviating accuracy, the 
difficulty of obtaining the metal (or the mass) suffic- 
iently free from the defects to which glass is incident, 
has until a late period baffled every attempt to pro- 
duce a lens, except of comparatively small dimen- 
sions ; although purity, unchangeableness of color, 
transparency, and a certain degree of refractive 
pow r er may be obtained, but perfect uniformity in 
the structure of the glass, so as to render its composi- 
tion absolutely homogeneous in all its parts, is not so 



SILICA, OR SAND. 341 

easy to be accomplished, and it is precisely this 
quality which is the most indispensible in the manu- 
facture of optical glass. The achromatic telescope 
has been of the utmost importance in the science of 
astronomy. Galileo, Dolland, D'Artigus, Guinaud, 
Utzschn eider, Bontemps and Ross have all contri- 
buted to accomplish the object; Frauenhofer and 
Fresnel have carried off the palm in the solution 
of these great problems. The telescope and micros- 
cope of 1869 are proofs of what has been done in this 
department of applied science. 

The artificial gems as prepared by the Royal 
Porcelain Works in Berlin, are composed of a frit 
of 6 drachems of carbonate of soda, 2 drachems burnt 
borax, 1 drachem saltpetre and 3 drachems red lead 
and 1^ ounces fine white sand. The colors to be 
given for the various imitation gems are as follows: 

Sapphire : 10 grains carbonate of Cobalt ; 

Opal: 10 grains oxide of Cobalt, and 
15 u " manganese, 

30 " " iron. 

Amethyst: 5 grains carbonate manganese. 

Gold Topaz : 30 grains oxide of uranicum. 

Emerald: 20 grains prol oxide iron, and 
10 " carbonate of copper. 

The various uses of glass. — When we consider the 
many uses which glass is applied, its cheapness, its 



342 

purity, its beauty, we find that it possesses the valuable 
qualities of nearly all the metals ; — incorruptible as 
gold, clear as silver, useful as iron, what would our 
houses be without it? It keeps the cold out, it lets 
the light in. We drink out of it, and we see our- 
selves in it. Besides fulfilling a thousand common 
and domestic uses, it is made into gems that rival the 
brilliancy of the diamond, and into lenses which give 
new realms to human vision. It restores eyesight to 
the aged, and remedies the defective eyesight of the 
young. It magnifies objects invisible to the naked 
eye, so that they can be distinctly seen and studied ; 
and it brings the heavens near. To it we owe our 
intimate acquaintance with the stars. The telescope 
is the father of modern astronomy, and the soul of 
the telescope is glass. 

Colored Glass. — With few exceptions, the oxides 
of the heavy metals possess the property of producing 
with silica colored compounds, w T hich may be com- 
bined with ordinary glass, the latter being, when 
pure, a colorless compound of silica with oxides of the 
light metals. The light metals are, potassium, iodine, 
calcium, magnesium, aluminium, etc. The heavy 
metals used to form colored compounds are, iron, 
copper, cobalt, antimony, gold, uranium, manganese, 
chromium, etc. Lead is an exception, as its oxide 
forms no colored compound with silica, but a perfectly 



COLORED GLASS. 343 

transparent and colorless one ; in fact, it transforms 
common glass into flint-glass. There are two methods 
of coloring glass ; one is to mix the metallic oxide in- 
timately with the material of common glass, or of 
the flint-glass, and put both together into the pot ; 
this kind of glass is therefore called pot-glass, and is 
only used for the colors produced by the cheaper 
metallic oxides. The second method produces the so- 
called flashed glass, and consists in covering only the 
surface of colorless glass with a very thin layer of the 
colored glass. This may be accomplished in two 
ways. By having two pots, one w r ith colorless and 
one with colored glass, and dipping a globe of hot 
colorless glass into the pot with colored glass, a layer 
of the latter will adhere, and by the dexterity of the 
w r orkman may be extended over the whole surface of 
the object he is making, be it a goblet or a window- 
pane. The other way is by means of a brush to cover 
the glass object after it is made with a cream-like 
mixture containing the coloring metallic oxide. 
After it is dry, it is placed in a suitable furnace, and 
heated as highly as the glass can stand without melt- 
ing. It is then slowly cooled, and the operation 
repeated if the layer applied has not been fused suffi- 
ciently to combine with the surface. It is evident 
that this coloring layer must be slightly more fusible 
than the original glass object, and this is a very deli- 
cate point. If the colored mixture be too fusible, it 



344 COLORED GLASS. 

will melt and run down ; if not fusible enough, the 
original glass itself may become soft before this com- 
bination has taken place. 

The art of painting on glass consists chiefly in the 
preparation of the diverse metalic oxides, which, by 
previous tests, are known to produce certain colors. 
The operation is rendered peculiarly difficult from 
the fact that, at the time the colors are used by the 
artist, they all look nearly alike, being a dirty brown. 
The desired colors appear only after the pane of 
glass on which the painting has been made is exposed 
in a furnace to such a heat as to melt the compound 
and cause it to combine, to a greater or lesser depth, 
with the surface of the colorless glass beneath. In 
olden times this art was highly esteemed, as is evi- 
denced by the painted windows in many churches on 
the European continent, some of which are justly 
celebrated as containing master-pieces of the highest 
artistic merit. Among them stand foremost those in 
the Protestant cathedral in the city of Gonda, Hol- 
land, a Christian Mecca for lovers of peculiar art 
productions. Among the common people of Europe 
an idea prevails that some secret in regard to this art 
has been lost ; this, however, is by no means the case. 
The manner and means of their production have 
always been perfectly known ; but we no longer have 
the arti>ts who devoted their lives to the practice of 
this verv difficult and hazardous department of art. 



COLORED GLASS. 345 

In this kind of work, as in the preparation of 
colored glasses in general the effects are calculated 
for transmitted light, the colors being transparent. 
On the other hand, enameled and opaline glasses are 
intended for reflected light, and in such cases, opaque 
or semi-translucent glass and colors are used. 

In general, it has been found that it is easier to' 
color glass when it contains lead, that is to say, flint- 
glass ; in fact, all the imitations of precious stones, 
gems, etc., are made from a very soft lead-glass, its 
fusibility and aptitude to take the color being greater, 
and its brilliancy being more marked. Soda and 
lead oxides make glass more brilliant and fusible, but 
at the same time very sott, whence the name of paste, 
which is applied to this compound, such imitation 
stones being in reality as soft as a paste when com- 
pared with the genuine gems, whose hardness is so 
extreme that they never lose their polish and original 
lustre, as is the case with imitations. For this reason, 
the so-called doublets have been introduced, in which 
a thin genuine gem is pasted on the exterior or ex- 
posed surface of an imitation of the same color made 
of soft glass. This is extensively practiced in the 
East Indies, and such stones will of course retain 
their polish, but can never be fully as brilliant as the 
genuine article. 

The coloring materials for glass are the same as for 
the imitation gems, only in glass any variety of color 



346 COLORED GLASS. 

may be used, while in the imitation of gems we can 
adopt only such peculiar colors as resemble special 
gems. 

Yellow glass. — This is produced as follows: 1st. A 
dirty yellow by charcoal, passing into a dark brown 
if the coloring agent be used in excess. 2d. A beau- 
tiful bright yellow by antimony, in the state of the 
so-called glass of antimony, or antimonite of potash. 
3d. Silver in combination with alumina, in the state 
of chloride of silver and clay. 4th. Uranium, in the 
state of oxide, produces a beautiful but expensive 
canary yellow; this glass is very interesting to the 
scientist, as, by being exposed to electricity in the 
dark, it becomes illuminated by a peculiar greenish 
fluorescence. 

Red glass. — 1st. Iron, used in the state of blood- 
stone or ochre as derived from the nitrate, gives a cheap 
brownish-red color, whose quality depends on the 
purity of the sesquioxide of iron used; the protoxide 
gives another color, to which we shall refer hereafter. 
2d. Copper, in the state of suboxide, gives a very 
brilliant red, which has long been known. A pecu- 
liarly is that this glass looks nearly colorless, with a 
slight tinge of green, when leaving the furnace, and 
only becomes red when, after cooling, it is heated a 
second time. As this red is so intense as to make the 
glass opaque if not used in very small quantity, it is 
always flashed. 3d. Gold, in the form of purple of 



COLORED GLASS. 347 

Cassius, gives a scarlet, carmine, rose, or ruby tint ; 
as it is very expensive and intense, it is always flashed. 

Orange glass is made in Bohemia, from a glass of 
antimony, red lead, and a little oxide of iron. 

Violet glass. — Manganese, in the state of peroxide ; 
care is to be taken that no coal or soot shall come in 
contact with it during the melting, as the carbon 
would reduce the peroxide to a protoxide, which 
gives no color at all. 

Blue glass. — Oxide of cobalt, in its different forms 
as smalt, zaffre, etc., is the only true blue color pro- 
duced in glass; the shade and tone is modified by 
different quantities and admixtures. 

Green glass. — 1st. Protoxide of iron, in small 
quantity ; the resulting glass has little brilliancy. 2d. 
Peroxide of copper gives a beautiful emerald green ; 
if the glass contains lead, it is more brilliant still; if 
the glass is not transparent, but dull or only translu- 
cent, it becomes deep blue. 3d. Chromium, in the 
state of the sesquioxide, or genuine pure chrome 
green, gives a brilliant grass-green color. It bears a 
high price. 4th. A mixture of the oxides of nichel 
and uranium ; this is used in Bohemia, where the 
color produced is called modern emerald-green, to 
distinguish it from the peroxide of copper green, 
which they call ancient emerald-green. 

Black glass. — A mixture of forge-scales, (protoxide 
of iron,) bone-ashes, (phosphate of lime,) and char- 



348 COLORED GLASS. 

coal, (carbon,) in excess, added to ordinary materials, 
makes a black glass, which in Bohemia is called 
jasper; it is perfectly opaque, very hard, and pos- 
sesses a remarkable lustre. Its properties are such 
that it may be used for boiling liquids without risk 
of breakage. It is reported that in Bohemia basalt 
or lava is used, with or without the forge-scales. 

Bronze colored glass, — If, in the last recipe, lead 
slags are substituted for the forge-scales, an opaque 
yellowish bronze-colored jasper is produced. Bottles 
of the opaque blackish kinds of glass are now r exten- 
sively used by chemists and photographers, to protect 
many chemicals that are sensitive to light against its 
decomposing influence. These bottles are mostly 
imported from Bohemia. 



INDEX. 



Absorption of Bricks, 209 

Account of Boerhave, 19 

Acid: Hydrofluoric, 57, 181, 208; 

Perchloric, 131 ; Phenic, 173 ; 

Phosphuric, 138; Sulphuric, 138. 
Advantages of Concrete Pavement 

over Stone or Wood, 187; over 

Iron Block Povement, 200. 

Aerolites, 21 

Agate, 29; Banded, 29; Colored, 

29; Jasper, 31; Moss, 29; Opal, 36 

Age of Formations, 308 

Aggregate of Geological Epochs 

form an Infinitesimal Portion of 

Eternity, 275 

Albumen of the Sap, 153 

Alcohol Barrels, Protection of 210 

Alkali, 44 ; Origin of , 309 

Alkaline Silicates, 13, 94, 123; Con- 
tact of, 213 

Alluvial Sand, 37; Sandstone, 37, 

Alum, 145 

Alumina, an Excellent Flux for 

Lime, 67, 72 

Aluminateof Lime. Hydration of, 

67, 68; Absorbs Phosphorus, 68; 

Absorbs Sulphur, 68. 
Aluminates of Lime, Hydration of, 

67; and Calcareous Clay, 71. 

Alumocalcite, 37 

American Limestone Hydraulic 

Mortar, 87 

Amethystine Quartz, 26 

Ammonia, 173 

Analcime, 39 

Analysis of Portland Cement, 73; 

Rondout Hydraulic Lime, 75 ; of 

Sap, 164. 
Ancient Cement, 96; Law for Lime, 

98; Law for Sand, 98; Mortar 

Hardness, 95. 

Angular Grains for Mortar, 84 

Anhydrous Silicates, 39 

Animal and Vegetable Albumen, 

153; Acts like a Ferment, 153. 

Anti-Rust Paint, 53 

Apophyllite, 122 

Aquarium Cement, 213 

Argillaceous Limestone, 68 ; Strata, 

104 ; Sandstone, 37. 

Arkansas Hot Springs, 292 

Arrangement of Rocks, 305 

Arsenic, White, 40 



Artificial Gems, 341 ; Hydraulic Ce- 
ment, 94. 
Artificial Stone, 58; Author's, 56; 
Explanation of, 123; Ransome's, 
54 ; Silicification of, 123 ; To Ex- 
cel Nature, 58. 
Artificial Sulphate of Baryta, 138; 
Its Proportion, 138, 

Asbestos Cement, 53 

Ash and Oak, Decrease in Weight, 148 
Asphalt : Compound for Wall 
Damp, 82 ; Pavement, 179 ; Cost 
of, 1S1 ; Utterly Impervious to 
Water, 181. 

' Athens Marble Cement, 223 

! Atolls formed by Fringe Reefs, 285 

: Authors Artificial Stone, 56; Pre- 
paration, 142; Process, 142. 

: Aventurine, 27 

j Babel Quartz, 34 

! Banded Agate, 29 

i Barilla, 19 

Barium, Chloride of, 138 

Barrel Lining, 52 

Baryta, 138; A Fine Paint. 87; En- 
amel, 133; Paint, 133. 
Basic Effects of Carbonate of Lime, 114 

Belgian Pavement 178 

Berlin Museum Painted by Kaul- 

back, 128 

Berzelin's Cement, 78; Discovery, 21 
Beton Building, 228; Process of, 229 
Beton Coignet Concrete, 182; Great 
Durability, 182; Its Cost, 182. 

Bisilicates, 89 

Bittern of Salines, 51 

Blanc Fix, 139; Its Manufacture, 
139; Mixed with Starch andDex- 
' terine, 139; Not DilUorv upon 
Health, 139. 

Bloodstone Cement, 133 

Boerhave's Account, 19 

Bohemian Glass, 13 

Bone Dust, 142 

Bookbinders 1 Paste, a Substitute for, 221 

Borax, 145 

Bottle Glass, 13 

Boucherie's Process, 145 

Bouilly's Cement, 79, 105 

Bracannot's Ink, 183 

Brewery Cement, 214 

Bricks, Absorption of, 209 ; of 
Roman Walls, 62. 



15 



350 



INDEX. 



Bridges of Concrete, 216 

Broadway Pavement, 196 

Brooklyn Navy Yard, 15, 141 

Brown and Miller Pavement, 204; 
Similar to Nicolson, 204. 

Buhrstone 33 

Building Marerial, 49; Timber Se- 
cured, 142 ; Wooden, 127. 

Burnett's Process, 145 

Cachelong, 35 

Cadmium, Sulphuret, 126 ; Yellow, 138 
Calcareous Clay and Aluminate of 
Lime, 71 ; Deposits in Thermal 
Springs. 291 ; Rocks Divided into 
Uncrystalline and Crystalline, 
290 ; Ten Varieties, 290. 
Calcium is one of the Nine Elements 
and Forms 997-1000 of the Earth's 

Crust, 277 

Calcination of Earth, 43; Flint, 38; 

Hornstone, 38 ; Quartz, 33 ; Sand, 48 
Cannel Coal Tar contains 7 per ct. 

Phenic Acid, 174 

Cannon Balls Preserved, 16 

Cap Quartz 26 

Captain Kotzebue's Description of 

Coral Islands 280 

Carbon, 240; Character ot, 249. 
Carbonate of Lime, Basic Effects of, 

114; Bilico, 16; Soda, 314. 
Carbonic Acid Essay, 236 ; Gas, 

140 ; Produced in Quantity of, . . 251 
Carlsbad and Selzer Springs, ...... 253 

Carnelian 29 

Cat's Eye Quartz, 27 

Cause of Hardening 115 

Cause of Damp Walls, 85 

Caustic Lye .' . . 20 

Cavernous Quartz, 26 

Cellar Cement, 53, 76 

Cement against Steam, 224; An- 
cient. 96; Aquarium, 213; Asbes- 
tos, 53; Athens Marble, 223; 
Berzelin's, 78; Bloodstone, 133; 
Bouilly's, 79, 105; Brewery, 214; 
Cellar, 53; Cistern, 77, 226; Clay, 
225; Drain and Gas Pipe, 225; 
Emerv, 133; Fire, 76 ; Fire Brick, 
53 ; Fire Proof, 223; For any Sub- 
stance, 7S; For Dry Walls and 
Cellars, 76; For Glass and Metals, 
222; For Iron and Stone, 77 ; For 
Metals, 222; Foundation Wall, 
224: Glass. 78; Gypsum, 225; 
Hamelin's. 78; Hamilton's, 105; 
Hard, 134; Hard Adhesive, 225; 
Impermeable, 224: Iron, 77, 226; 
Keene's, 66; Kuhlman's, 78; 
Lute's, 77; Malt House, 214; 
Manganese, 133; Martins, 66; 
Meaning of, 73; Metallic, 224; 
Most Adhesive Insoluble, 212; 
Most Refractory, 227; Parian, 
66; Peasley, 116; Plaster, 66; 
Portland, 65; Reese's, 78, 105; 
Roman, 65, 104; Roofing, 53; 



I Solidifying Property, 102 ; Sort l's, 
103 ; Steam Resisting, 77 ; Stinde's, 
96; Stone, 74; Stove, 226; StroEg 
Iron, 116: Terra Cotta, 79, 105; 
Various, 222; Water Tanks, 214; 
with Chloride Calcium, 49; Zinc, 224 

\ Chabasite, 39 

I Chalcedony Quartz, 28 

; Chalk, a Substitute for Lime, 57; 
Flints in, 20; Flints of, 32; Hard- 
ening of, 17 ; origin of, 296; Silici- 
fication. 58. 
Characteristic Features of Chalk, . . 323 

Character of Carbon 249 

Character of Glass, 336 

Character of Potassium, 310 

Charcoal Application, 41 

Charring. Not Consuming, 141 

Cheap White Paint, 126 

Cheapest Lubricator, 212; White- 
wash, 313; Yellow-wash, 213. 

Chert 32 

Chloride Calcium 17, 48 

Chloride of Barium 138 

Chloride of Lime, 140 ; of Iron, 48. 

Chimes of Barrels Filled, 250 

Chrome Red, 138 

Chrysoprase, 29 

Circular of Uses, 50 

Cistern Cement, 77, 226 

Cisterns, Protection of, 210 

Classification of Glass, 331, 333: of 
Rocks of New York City, by 
Dr. Stevens, 303. 
Clay Cement, 225; Clay and Chalk, 142 
Clay, Percentage of, 102; Siliceous, 
75; test. 38. 

Cleavage Quartz, 23 

Coal Tar Recommended 143 

Coating of Stone, 207 

Cobalt Blue 138 

Cochineal Ink, 133 

Cold Water poured over the Mass, . 42 
Colored Agate, 29 ; Jelly, 43. 

Colors of Quartz, 24 

Colors Syringed on Painting, 135 

Combustion, Protection against,... 140 

: Coming Pavement, 185 

Commodore Perry, 15 

Common Opal, 35; Sandstone, 37. 

Composition of Doebereiner, 15 

Composition with Silicates, 106 

Compounds of Oxygen, 38; of So- 
dium, 313. 

Compound Water Glass, 16 

Concrete, 66; Beton Coignet, 182; 
Fiske, 200 ; for Bridges, 216 ; for 
Floors, 216 ; for Wall Damp, 81 ; 
Pavement, 179. 

Condensation of Silica, 119 

Conglomerate Quartz, 33 

Concretionary Quartz, 24 

Consolidation of Shells and Corals 
by the Precipitation of Calcareous 
and Ferrugenous Matter, 279; 
Florida Keys an Example, 280. 



INDEX. 



351 



Constituents of Glass, 329; of 
Quartz. 22, 25. 

Conversion of Silicate of Lime, 134 

Copperas, Solution of, 144 

Copper Scales Additional, 43 

Copper, Sulphate, 145 

Corals Covered with Expanded 
Polyps, 284; Besembling Forms 
and Colors of Flowers, 284; Waves 
Destructive to, 284. 
Coral Formations. Thickness of, 
285 ; Certain Tropical Coasts Ex- 
empt. 282; Tropics the Hot Beds 
for, 282. 
Coral Islands Described by Captain 
Kotzebue. 280; in the Pa- 
cific, 282, 290. 
Coral Plantation with Bare Patches. 281 

Coral Platform, 2S3 

Coral Keef Building as Described by 
Hirsch, 286: One Hundred and 
Twenty Species, 286. 
Coral Beef, Two Thousand Feet 
Thick, 2>2 ; Corresponds to 
190,000 years, 282. 
Coral Beef Bock, Consolidation of 
Fragments Form, 285; Fringing 
or Barrier Beefs Formed, 285. 
Coral Rocks Cover Millions of Acres, 
250: Descends in Perpendicular 
Columns. 280; Divided into Five 
Kinds, 2S3. 

Cost of Asphalt Pavement, 181 

Cost of Beton Coignet Concrete, . . 182 

Crab Grass, 19 

Cretaceous Belt, 105; Period. 299. 
Cross-Ties, 51 : Protection of, 210. 

Crypto-Crystalline Quartz 25 

Crystal Form Quartz, 23 

Crystal Glass 13 

Culinary Vessels. Enamelling of, .. 222 
Cypress Stein with 3.000 Rings, 163: 

of 3,000 years. 163. 
Damp Wall Application. 85; Causes 
of. ^5; Clay and Whiting for, 86; 
Lime and Portland Cement, 86. 
Dead Oil, 146: Absorbs Oxygen, 
146; Coagulates Albumen, 146; 
Complete Protection. 148: Con- 
tains Carbolic Acid, 147; Protects 
against Damp and Wet, 146; Pro- 
tects from Cremacausis, 146 ; 
Protects from Parasites. 146; 
Poisonous to Animal and Vege- 
table Life. 146; Shuts out Air 
and Moisture. 146. 
Decrease in Weight of Ash and Oak, 148 
Dentists use Silica as Plaster 

Moulds 52 

Dentritic Forms, 31 

Dentrition at Falls of Niagara 258 

Deposits of Salt, 313; How Obtained, 

313 : Its Uses, 313. 
Description of Green Sand, 318; of 
Quartz, 316: of Sand, 316; of 
Sand Stone, 315. 



Different Kinds of Polypiferous 

Zoophytes, 250 

Disax>pointment and Duff's Groupes 

Visit each other, . . '. 280 

Discovery of Berzelins, 21 

Disintegration, 38; of Granite, 256 ; 

of Stone, 55. 
Dissolved Quartz, 34; The Gey- 
sers, 34. 

Distillation, Process of, 173 

Distincticn of Animals and Plants, 261 

Division of Bocky Masses, 305 

Doebereiners Composition, 15 

Dolomite and Silicate. 90 ; Compo- 
sition. 90; Forms Extraordinary 
Hard Stone, 71. 

Double Soluble Glass, 44 

Drain and Gas Pipe Cement, 225 

Dr. Krieg, 175 

Dr. Loew's Bemarks, 264 

Dr. Liebig's Bemarks, 265 

Dr. Stevens 1 Classification of Bocks, 303 

Dr. T. Sterry Hunt/s Bemarks, 268 

Drusy Quartz, 26 

Drying of Timber, 170 ; by Steam, 14S 

Dry Wall Cement, 76 

Dunging Salt 15 

Dust, Volcanic 99 

Earth, Calcination of, 43; History 
of, 275; Infusorial, 20: Must 
have had a Beginning. 275. 
Easel Painting, Stereo-Chromic, .. 137 

Effloresence of Alkali, 44 

Egyptian Jasper, 33 

Emery Cement, . . 133 

Eminently iivdraulic Lime, ...... 64 

Enamel, Baryta, 133; Oxide of 
Chrome, 133; Ultramarine, 133. 

Enamelling Culinary Vessels, 222 

Essay on Carbonic Acids, 236; on 
Lime Stones, 273. 

Evaporation to Consistency, 42 

Evidence of the beginning or End 

of the Globe, 276 

Examination after One Year's Ex- 
posure, 136 

Experiment* of Bansome, 17; of 

Bumford, 169 ; with Square Blocks, 141 
Explanation of the True Artificial 

Stone, 123 

Exposure for Ten Dave. 44 ; to Pres- 
sure, 20, 57. 

Extraction of Soluble Salts, 55 

Farm Houses 149 

Felspar, 37, 92; Lime, 39; Mica, 
39; Sodn, 39; Potash, 39. 

Ferruginous Quartz, 27 

Fibrous Quartz, 26 

Fire Brick, 223; Cement, 53. 

Fire Cement, 77 

Fire Opal, 35 

Fire Proof Cement, 223; Paint, 52, 

Fiske Concrete, 200 

Flint. 31 ; Calcination of. ?8: Glass, 
13; in Chalk, 20; ol Chalk, 32; 
Marble, 87. 



352 



INDEX. 



Floors of Concrete 216 

Florida Keys, 280 

Florite 36 

Fluohydric Acid for Hardening,. . . 40 
Fluorcalcium and Soluble Glass, . . . 132 
Fluoride Calcium, a Fusible Silicate. 40 

Fluosilicate of Lime 131 

Flurspar, 40 

Formation of Opal, 119; of Quartz, 

119: of Saltpetre. 119. 
Formations. Age of, 308; Under 
the Surface of the Sea, from De- 
positions or Chemical Precipita- 
tion 278 

Foundation and Upper Part 195 

Foundation Wall Cement, 244 

Fracture Quartz. 24 

Frame Houses, Protection of, 210 

Freestone, 317 

Frequent Renewals Expensive 194 

Fresco Painting. 117; its Silicifica- 

tion, 117; Substitute, 127. 
Fringing or Barrier Coral Keefs,. . . 285 

Fringe Keefs from Atolls, 286 

Frog Grass 19 

Fungi Require Oxygen for Genera- 
tion, 166 

Furnace. Reverberators, 41 

Fusing Quartz, * 22 

Gas. Carbonic Acid, 140; Oxygen, 140 

Gems. Artificial. 341 

German Hydraulic Cement. 94 

Geodes Quartz 34 

Glass, 32S; Bohemian, 13; Bottle, 
13; Cement, 78; Character of, 
336; Classification of, 331, 333; 
Constituents of, 329: Crystal, 
18: Double Soluble. 44: Flint, 
13; Frog, 19; History of, 328; 
Manufacture of, 335; Metal Ce- 
ment, 222 : Not Scratched by 
Steel. 44; Physical Character of, 
334; Soluble/ 13. 30.141; Stross! 
13; Varieties of. 339 ; Water, 
13: Window. 13. 

Glauber Salts 40, 138 

Globe. Solid Surface of, 21 

Glue, a Substitute for, 221 

Granite. Disintegration of. 256 

Granite. Gneiss. Micaschist and 

Compact Limestone 304 

Granite Pavements, 198; Become 

Polished and Slippery 199 

Granitic Sand 37 

Granular Quartz 33 

Grape Vines. Soluble Glass as 

Manure for, 219 

Gravel 37 

Great Colorado Gorge 2 

Green Sand, 105. 316; Composition. 105 
Green Vitriol, impregnated 'with 

Silica 127 

Grotto del Cane 253 

Gypsnm Cement. 226; Bilicification 

of. 114: and Lime. 115. 
Hamelio's Cement 78 



Hamilton's Cement 105 

Hard Adhesive < 'ement, 225 

Hard Cement, 133; Mortal Formed, 137 
Hardening of Chalk, 17; of Lime 

Similar to Gypsum, 122 

Hardening Process, 92 

Hardness of Ancient Mortar, 95; 
of Quartz, 24. 

Hard Limestone 62 

Hay torite, 33 

Heart Wood Resists Rot, 146 

Heliotrope 29 

Herb Kali, 19 

Herkimer Quartz 24 

Ileulandite, 39 

History of Glass, 328; of the Earth, 275 
Hornstone, 32 ; Calcination of. 38. 

Horses, Loss of, 193 

Hot Springs of Arkansas, 292 

Houses of Parliament, 18 

House Timber, 51 

How to Coat Wood, 141 

Hyalite, 38 

Hydrated Silico Carbonate, 114 

Hydrate of Lime, Reaction of, 68 

Hydration of Aluminates of Lime, 67, 68 
Hydraulic Cement, Artificial, 94 ; 

Composition, 94: Germaa, 94. 
Hydraulic Lime. 58. 64; Inferiority, 
102: Meaning of, 65; Mortar, 
58, 90; Where Found, 91, 
Hydraulic Limestone, American 

Mortar 90 

Hydraulic Pre sure, 48 

Hydraulicity of Magnesia 69 

Hydiocarbons Solid at 400 to 500 

deg. F 174 

II vdrochlorate A mn.onia 130 

Hydrofluoric Acid. 131, 208; Appli- 
cations, 208: Forms an Insolu- 
ble Compound, 131 ; Mixed with 
Gypsum, 132; Price of, 57. 

Hydrogenium. 238 

Ilydrophane 35 

Hydrous Silicates 39 

Imitation Sandstone, 57 

Impermeable " 224 

Impregnation of Wood by Pres- 
sure, 156; by Preservative 
Liquids, 157. 

Increase in Weight 144 

Indestructible Ink, 133 

Indurating Action, 54 

Inferiority of Hydraulic Lime, . . 102 
Infusorial Earth, 20; Instead of 
Sand, 43. 

Infusoria of Planltz, 20 

Injection of Silicates 118 

Ink. Braconnot's. 133: Cochineal, 
133: Indestructible, 133. 

Insoluble Precipitate of Silica 144 

Iron Block Pavement, 199 ; Fails in 
New York, 199; Its Advantages, 
200; Succeed- in Boston, 199. 

Iron Cement 77,228 

I ron, Chloride of. 48 



INDEX. 



353 



Iron and Stone Cement, 77 

Iron, Oxide of, 13S; Pyrol ignite of, 145 
Iron Ship Bottoms, Preservatives of, 212 

Iron Test, 33 

Itacolumite, 33 

Jasper. 29:' Agate, 31; Porcelain, 

33 : Egvptian, 33. 
Jelly, Colored, 43; Liquid, 16 ; Silica, 20 

Juice in Vascular Tissue, 164 

Kali Herb, 19 ; Vitrifying, 19, 

Kaulbach's Soluble Glass, 44 

Keene's Cement, Q6 

Kelp, 19 

Kreosote Carbolic Acid, 143 

Krieg's Recommendation in 1858, . 143 

Kuhlman 16 

Kuhlman's Cement, 7S; Theoretical 
View, 112. 

Kunkei; 19 

Kvan's Process, 145 

Laths, Protection of, 210 

Laumonite, 122 

Lavoisier on the Cause of Harden- 
ing, 98 

Left-Handed Crystal Quartz, 25 

Liebig, 16 ; Process of, 20. 

Light Oil, 173 

Lime, Ancient Law for, 90 : Animal 
Product. 274; Chloride of, 140; 
Combination with Phosphoric 
Acid, 276; Derived from Disin- 
tegrated Rocks, 274; Eminently 
Hydraulic, 64; Felspar, 39; Fluo- 
silicated, 131 ; Hydraulic, 58, 64; 
Made through the Agency of 
Life, Animal or Vegetable, 276 ; 
Medium of Organic Being's in the 
Inorganic Process, 276; Mode- 
rated Hydraulic, 64 ; Plastic, 
112;' Poor, 64; Rich, 61, 64; Se- 
creted by Testacia and Corals, 
274; Speculation on the Origin of, 
277; Silicate, 15, 18; Test, 38; 
Water, 100 ; Weight of, 74. 
Limestone, 273; Argillaceous, 68; 
Hard, 62; Magnesian, 18, 52; of 
New York Island, 301 ; Described 
by Cozzens, 302 ; Silicifica- 
tion of, 131. 

Limped Quartz, 25 

Lining for Barrels, 52 

Linseed Oil Barrels, Protection of, 210 

Liquid Jelly, 16 

Lithographic Stones, 137 

Locust and Cedar Resist Decom- 
position, 154 

Long Leafed and Northern Pine,. . 167 

Loss of Horses, 193 

Lubricator, Cheapest, 212 

Ludus Hehnontii, 75 

Lustre of Quartz, 24 

Lute's Cement, 77 

Lydian Stone, 32 

Lye, Caustic, 20 ; Preparation of, . . 43 
Lyell's Arguments, 278; Subdivi- 
sion of Rocks, 308, 



Mac Adam's Pavement, 180 ; System 

in 1816, 184. 
Magnesia. Hydraulicity of, 69; in 

Mortar, 93. 
Magnesian Limestone, 18, 52 : of 
Potsdam Period, 293, 

Magnesium, Oxychloride of, 51, 103 

Malt House Cement, 214 

Mamillary Quartz, 24 

Manganese Cement, 133 : Peroxide, 126 
Marble Cracks and Crevices, 52: 
Flint, 87. 

Marly Sandstone, 37 

Martin's Cement, 66 

Manufacture of Glass, 835 

Materials for Building, 49; Formed 
into Rocks, 289. 

McGonegal Pavement, 202 

Meaning of Hydraulic Lime, 64; of 
Cement, 73/ 

Menilite, 36 

Merits of Wooden Pavements, .... 188 

Mesotvpe, 122 

Metal Cement, 222 

Metalic " 224 

Method of Preserving Wood, 155; 
By Cold and Tepid Water, 
155 ; Withdrawing the Albu- 
men, 155. 

Method of Vicar, 103 

Mica Composition, 39; Felspar, 39. 

Micaceous Sandstone, 37 

Microscopical Parasites, 162 

Milkv Quartz, 27 

M illstones, 49 

Mississippi River Sand 37 

Mixture, Vicat's, 103 

Mocha Stone, 31 

Mode of Application, 207 

Moderately Hydraulic Lime 64 

Monuments, 49; Restored, 123. 
Mortar between Bricks, 62: Hy- 
draulic, 38, 90 ; Magnesia in, 93: 
Receipts, 80: Roman, 96; Rough, 
128: Silica in, 93. 

Moss Agate 29 

Most Adhesive Insoluble Cement, . 212 

Most Refractory Cement, 227 

Mucilage. A Substitute for, 221 

Munich Theatre, 16, 129, 141 ; Solu- 
ble Glass used in, 129. 

Mushroom Attacks Wood, 166 

Natural Silicates, 119, 122: Apophyl- 
lite, 122; Effloresence, 122; Lau- 
monite, 122; Mesotype, 122; 
Stilbite, 122. 

Nature of Lime Determined, 63 

Nature of Traffic, 195 

Navy Yard, Brooklyn, 15, 141 

Neri's Treatise, 19 

New Castle Coal contains 2^" per 

cent. Phenic Acid, 174 

New Jersey River Sand, 37 

Niagara Falls Detrition, 258 

Nicolson Pavement, 201 

Nineteenth Century, 53 



354 



INDEX. 



Nitrate Soda, 40, 121: Where De- 
rived. 121 : Where Found, 121. 

Non-Inflammable Wood, 51 

Nullipores, Calcareous Vegetation, 2S4 

Nullipores Look Like Plants, 2S8 

Oak and Ash Decrease in Weight,. 148 
Objections to Stone and Wood 

Pavements, 188 

Oertlyand Fendrich, 107: Coating, 
107: Iron Stone, IDS: Radiating 
Power. 110 : Remarks, 110. 
Oil. Brownish. 173: Light, 173. 

Oleaginous Yapor Process, 172 

Onyx 31 

Opal, 35: Agate, 36: Common, 35: 
Fire. 35 : Formation. 119 : Green, 
35: Orange, 35: Resin. 85: Solu- 
ble in Potash, 37: Wood, 36. 

Orange Opal 35 

Ordnance Department, 15 

Origin of Alkalies. 309: Calcareous 

Deposits. 291 : Chalk, 296 : Lime, 277 
Oxide, Burnt, 138 : Chrome, 126 : 
Chrome Enamel. 133 : iron, 13S : 
Raw, 138, 

Oxychloride of Magnesium, 51, 103 

Oxygen Compounds, 38 : Gas, 140. 
Pacific, 290 : Coral Islands in the, 282 
Paint, Anti-Rust, 53 ; Barvta, 133 ; 

Fire-Proof, 52. 
Painting, Exposed for One Year, 
128; Fresco, 117; Silica, 132: 
Silicate, 117 : Precaution in, 135 : 
Upper Ground for, 137 ; with 
Brush, 208. 

Parian Cement, 66 

Parisian Pavement, 179 

Patents of Robbins and Moll, 175 

Pavement, Asphalt. 179 : Broadway, 
196 : Brown and Miller, 204 : 
Granite, 198 : Granite becomes 
Polished and Slippery, 199 : Iron 
Block. 199 : Iron Blocks Fail in 
New York and Succeed in Bos- 
ton, 199 : McGonegal. 202 ; Nicol- 
son. 201 : Bobbins. 204: Seelev's 
Concrete, 205: Stafford, 204: 
fitowe, 203: The Coming, 205: 
Typical Historical, 191. 
Payen Recommends Caustic Alkali, 154 

Pearlash. Purifying of, 39 

Peasley Cement. 116 

Percentage of Clay, 102 

Perchloric Acid, 131 

Permanent White, 138 

Phenic Acid, 173 : Cannel Coal Tar 
Contains 7 perct.. Newcastle 2)4 
per ct.. Staffordshire 4)4 per ct., 

Average 5 per ct., 174 

Phenocrystalline Quartz, 25 

Phenomena of Good Lime, 63 

Phosphoric Acid, 138 

Physical < lharacter of Glass, 334 

Pitch of Dead Oil, 146 

Planitz, Infusoria, 20 

Planks and Blocks, How to Prepare, 206 



Plasma 29 

Plaster Cement, 66 ; Paris, 66. 

Plastic Lime, 112 

Pliny and Yitruvius, 97 

Plinv's Ideas on Wood Decay, 166 : 
Statement, 19. 

Polarization of Quartz, 24 

Poles, Telegraph, 51 

Polverine, 19 

Polypiferous Zoophytes, 280 

Pontine Marshes, 74 

Poor Lime, . . 64 

Porcelain Jasper, 33 

Portland Cement. G5 : Analysis, 73 : 

Where Manufactured. 104. 
Potash Felspar, 39 : Silicate, 13 : 
Soluble Glass. 41 : Soluble Glass 
Whitewash, 44 : Water Glass, 18. 
Potassium, 21 : Character of, 310 : 
Compounds, 311 : Fluoride, 21 : 
Siliciuret, 21. 

Prase, 29 

Precaution in Painting, 135 

Precipitated by Alcohol, 42 

Preparation of Planks and Blocks,. 206 

Preparing Underground, 130 

Preservation by Champty (Dipping 
in Suet), 152 , by De* Saussure", 
152. by Fagol (1740), bv Haller 
(1756), bv Jackson (1767), bv 
Kyan (1830;. by Pallas (1779), 
151 : by Payen (Dipping in 
Rosin'. 152 : bv Immersion, 150 : 
of Walls, 209': with Alum and 
Sulphate of Iron, 151. 
Preservatives of Iron Ship Bottoms, 212 

Price of Hydrofluoric Acid, 57 

Process of Distillation, 173 

Process of Liebitr, 20 : of Yiolitter, 148 
Prof. Henry's Statement of Niagara 

Falls, 259 

Prossers System, 162 

Protection against Combustion, 
140 : of Alcohol Barrels. Cisterns, 
Cross Ties. Frame Houses, Lath, 
Linseed Oil Barrels, Rail Road 
Sleepers, Staves, Shingles, Spirits 
Turpentine Barrels, Telegraph 

Poles, Timber 210 

Prismatic Face Quartz, 24 

Pseudomorphous " 83 

Pumice. Yolcanic, 99 

Pure Silica, 38 

Purifying Pearlash, 39 : 8oda-ash, 39 

Puzzuolana, 61 

Puzzuolanic Action, 67 : Silicates,. . 69 

Pyrolignite of Iron, 145 

Quantity of Carbonic Acid Pro- 
duced, 251 

Quartz, Amethystine, 26 : Aven- 
turine,27 : Babel, 34 : Calcination 
of, 38 : Cap, 26 : Cat's Eye, 27 : 
Cavernous. 26 : Chalcedony, 28 : 
Characteristic Features of, 323 : 
Cleavage, 23: Colors, 24; Con- 
nectionary, 24 ; Conglomerate, 



INDEX. 



355 



33 : Constituents of, 22, 25 : Cryp- 
to-Crystalline, 25 : Crystal Form, 
23 : Description of, 316 : Dis- 
solved, 34 : Drusy, 26 ; Ferrugin- 
ous, 27 ; Fibrous, 26 ; Formation, 
119 ; Fracture, 24 : from Herki- 
mer, 24 : from Ulster, 24 : Fusing-, 
22 : Geodes, 34 : Granular, 33 ; 
Hardness, 24 : Left-Handed Crys- 
tals, 25 : Limped, 25 : Lustre, 24 ; 
Mamillary Form, 24 : Milky, 27 ; 
Phenocrystalline, 25 : Polariza- 
tion, 24 : Prismatic Faces, 24 ; 
Pseudomorphous, 33 : Eadiated, 

26 : Eight-Handed Crystals, 25 ; 
Eose, 26 : Sagenite, 27 : Sapphire, 

27 ; Siderite, 27 : Size of Crys- 
tals, 24 : Smoky, 27 : Soluble" in 
Fluohydric Acid, 25 : Specific 
Gravitv, 24 : Stalactitic, 24 : Star, 
26 : Streak, 24 : Swimming, 36 ; 
Symbol, 25: Tabular, 33: Varie- 
ties of. 326 : Vitreous \ arieties, 25 

Quartzose Sandstone, 33 

Quicklime Lighter than Lime, 63 

Eadiated Quartz, 26 

Eail Eoad Sleepers, 51 : Protection 

of, 210 : Secured, 142. 
Bails of Beach Wood. 160 ; of Scotch 
Fir. 159. 

Eandanite, 36 

Eansome's Artificial Stone, 54 

Eansome's Experiment, 17 

Eaw Oxide, 133 

Eeaction of Hydrate of Lime, 68 

Seduction to Granular Condition,. 38 
Eeef Building Coral, 286: 120 Spe- 
cies, 286, 

Eecse's Cement, 78, 105 

Eelative Claims of Wood and 

Metal as Material for Eails, 157 

Eemarks of Dr, Liebig, 265 : of Dr. 
Lowe, 264 : of T, Sterry Hunt, . . 268 

Eeport on Wooden Eailways, 158 

Eesin Opal, 35 

Eeverberatory Furnace.. .? 41 

Eich Lime 61. 64 

Richmond, Va.. Stratum, 20 

Eight-Handed Crystal Quartz, .... 25 

Eiver Belus, 19 

Eiver Sand from Mississippi, 37 ; 
from New Jersey, 37. 

Eobbins and Moll's Patent, 175 

Bobbins 1 Patent, 172: Pavement,. 205 

Eochetta, 19 

Eock Crystal, 324 

Eocks, Arrangement of, 305 : Divi- 
sion in Ages, 305 : Sedimentary, 
304 ; Sub-Division of Geological 
Time, 307 : Sub-Division of Lyell, 888 

Eocky Masses Divided, 305 

Eoman Cement, 65, 104 ; Where 
Manufactured, 104. 

Roman Mortar, 96 

Eondout Hydraulic Lime, Analysis 
of, 75. 



Eoofing Cement, 53 

Eose Quartz, 26 

Eosin, 145 

Rouen. Mortar, 128 

| Eoyal Theatre, Munich 16 

j Rumford's Experiments, 169 

Sagenite Quartz, 27 

: Salt, 140 : Dunging, 15 : Deposits, 
313: How Obtained, 313: Its 
Uses, 313 : Glauber, 40, 138, 

Salts of Strassford, 312 

Saltpetre Formation, 119 : from 
Mammoth Cave, 121 : Missouri, 
121 : Tennessee, 121. 
Sand, 316 : Alluvial, 37 : Angular 
Grains, 37 ; Ancient Law for. 98 ; 
Calcination of. 48: Digested in 
Chlorohvdric Acid, 38 : Granitic, 
37: Green, 105, 317; Vol- 
canic, 37. 
Sandstone, 315 : Argillaceous, 37 ; 
Common, 37: Flexible, 33, 37: Imi- 
tation, 57 : Marly. 37 : Micaceous, 
37 ; Quartzose, 33 : Silicification 
of, 124 : Volcanic, 37, 

Sap, Analysis of, 164 

Sapphire Quartz 27 

Sardonyx, 31 

Sea Water, Utilization of, 312 

Secret of the Venetian Fiddle 

Makers, 149 

Sedimentary Eocks, 304 

Seeley's Pavement, 178, 205 ; Fail- 
ure on Fifth Avenue, 205 

Separation of Sulphur, 42 

Septaria, 75 

Sheathing Vessels, Substitute for, . 15 

Shells, Silicified, 34 

Shingles, Protection against Fire, 
210 ; against Eot, 127 : Incombus- 
tible, 127, 

Ship Timber 15, 51 

Shrinkage of Wood, 169 

Siderite Quartz, 27 

Siemen's Apparatus, 45 ; Descrip- 
tion, 45 ; Patent, 45 ; Pressure 
of Five Atmospheres. 45. 
Silica, 21. 315: Acid, 22: Condensa- 
tion of. 119: Fusible in Oxygen, 
Infusible, 23: in Mortar, 93 : In- 
soluble, 22: Pure, 38: Soluble in 
Water and Acids, 22: The Fee- 
blest Acid, 23; with Two Modifi- 
cations, 22. 
Silica Painting. 132: on Glass, Me- 
tals, Zinc or Porcelain, 132 ; Semi- 
Transparent Colors, 132. 

Silica Jelly, 20 

Silicate of Lime, Conversion of, 134 

Silicate Painting, 117; Brush, 117; 

Oak and Maple Take Fire 210° ,. 127 
Silicate, Alkaline, 94; Anhydrous, 
39: Hvdrous, 39; injection of, 
117: Natural, 119, of Lime, 18; 
Potash, 13 ; Potash and Lime, 15 ; 
Puzzuolanic, 69 ; Soda, 13, 



356 



INDEX. 



Silicated Alkali, Slow Decomposi- 
tion of, 119 

Silicious Sinter. 31 : Clay, 75, 
Silicification of Artificial Stone, 123; 
by Atmospheric Carbonic Acid, 
123 : Lime Silicate Forming, 123 : 
of Carbonated Metallic Salts, 
121: of Chalk, 5S; of Fat Lime, 
113: of Gypsum, 114: <>f Lime- 
stone. 131 : of Mortar. 113 : Por- 
ous Limestones. 113: of Sand- 
stone, 124: of Wood. 140: Arrest- 
ing Combustion, 140: Dry Rot, 
140 : Inflamibilitv. 140. 
Silicified Shells, 34^: Wood, 34. 

Siiico Carbonate of Lime, 16 

Si'.icium, 21: Inflamibility, 22; 
Oxygen. 22, 

Siliciuret Potassium, 21 

Silex, 21 

Size of Quartz Crystals 24 

Slate, Cement, 52; Tripoli, 36. 

Slippery and Unstable Footing 194 

Blow Decomposition, 153: of Sili- 
cated Alkali, 119. 

Smoky Quartz 27 

Soap, a Substitute for, 221 

Soda Ash, 313: Its Manufacture, 

314 : Purifying of, 39. 
Soda Felspar. 31» : Nitrate, 40 : Sili- 
cate. 13 : Applied with Syringe, 
126: Apt to Shrink on 'Wood. 
126 : for Painting on Walls, 126. 

Soda Soluble Glass, 42 

Sodium. 312: Compounds, 313. 

Solid Glass, Vitreous 44 

Solidifying Propertv of Cement 102 

Solid Surface of the Globe, ' . . . 21 

Soluble Glass, 13. 39, 141 : a Substi- 
tute for Soap, 219 : for Glue, 221 ; 
for Bookbinders 1 Paste, 221 : for 
Mucilage. 221: Fuchs, 13: Kaul- 
bach's, 44 : Manure for Grape 
Tines, 219: Uniform Application 
of. 128: Used at Munich Theatre, 129 

Soluble Quartz. 25 

Soluble Salts. Extraction of, 55 

Solution of Copperas. 144: of Puri- 
fied Mass. 42: of Powdered Flint, 
43: in Caustic Lye, 43; under 
Pressure, 43. 

SvreTs Cement, 108 

Sparks of Locomotives, 149 

Spandau State Prison, 16 

Speaker s Court, 18 

Specific Gravity Quartz, 24 

Speculation on the Origin of Lime, . 277 

Spiles 15 

6pirits Turpentine Barrels, 210 

Springs of < 'arlsbad and Selzer, 253 

: >rd Pavement, 178, 204 

Staffordshire Coal contains 4>£ per 

cent. Phenic Acid, 174 

Stalactitic Quartz 24 

Star Quartz, 26 

Statement of Pliny, 19 



State Prison in Spaudau, 16 

Staves, Protection of, 210 

Steam Resisting Cement, 77, 224 

Stereo-Chromic, 125; Addition of 
Oxide of Zinc, 125 : Basis of Easel 
Painting, 137 : bv Trituration, 

125 : by Sulphate* Baryta, 125; 
Both Agree with Silica, 125 : Co- 
lors Unite with Silica, 126 : on 
Stone, 125: Painting, 44: Prevent 
Decomposition, 125. 

Stilbite, 39, 122 

Stinde's Cement, 96 

Stone and Wood Pavement, Objec- 
tion to, 183 

Stone Cement, 74 : Coating on, 207 ; 
Disintegration of, 55: Lithograph- 
ic, 137: Lvdian. 32: Mocha, 31. 

Stove Cement, 226 

Stowe Pavement, 203 

Strass, 340 

Strassfurth Salts, 312 

Strass Glass, 13 

Strata, Argillaceous 104 

Stratified Pocks, Thickness of, 306 

Stratum in Richmond, Ya., 20 

Streak Quartz, 24 

Street Pavement, 177: Asphalt, 
179: Belgian, 178. Concrete. 179: 
MacAdam's System, 180: Nicol- 
son, 177: Parisian, 179: Seely's 
Patent, 178 : Stafford, 178, 

Strong Iron Cement, ■ 116 

Stucco, 66 

Subsilieates, 39 

Substitute for Sheathing Vessels, 
15: for White Lead, 139; for 
Zinc White, 139. 

Sulphate of Baryta, Artificial, 138 

Sulphate of Copper, 145: of Cadmium, 

126 : of Soda, 40. 

Sulphuric Acid, 138 

Sweetening Water, 226 

Swimming Quartz, 36 

Symbol Quartz, 25 

System of MacAdam in 1816, 184; 
'of Prosser. 162; of Tail, 214; 

Various. 190. 

Table of Equivalents, 239 

Tabular Quartz 33 

Tanks, Protection of, 210 

Tail's System, 214 

Telegraph Poles, 51 : Protection of, 210 

Terra Cotta Cement 79, 105 

Teredo Navalis, 16: Feed upon 

Borings of Wood, 147. 

Tertiary 20 

Test of Water Lime, 101 

Theory of Vicat 68 

Thickness of Coral Formations, 285 ; 

of Stratified Kocks, 306. 
Timber, Drying of, 170, Chemical 

Process, 162: for Houses, 51 : for 

Ships, 15 : Protection of, 210 ; Rot 

and Sensoning,162. 
Toadstones, 75 



INDEX. 



357 



Touchstone, 32 

Traffic, Nature of, 195 

Trass, 100 

Travertin, 293 

Treatise, of Neri, 19 

Triassic Period, 104 

Tripolite, 36 : Variety of, 37. 

Tripoli Slate. 36 

Typical Historical Pavement, 191 

Ulster Quartz, 24 

Ultramarine, Blue and Green, 126 ; 
Enamel, 133. 

Umber, 138 

Underground, Preparing, 130 

Uniform Application of Soluble 

Glass, 128 

Unisilicatcs, 39 

Upper Ground for Painting, 137 

Upward Increase of Reef Ground 

per Year. 282 

Utilization of Sea Water, 812 

Valley of Death 253 

Van Helmont 19 

Variety of Glass, 339: of Quartz. 

326: of Tripolite, 37, 
Various Cements, 222 . Hues of 
Glass, 342 : Systems, 196. 

Vascular Tissue Juice. 164 

Vegetable Albumen, Cause of De- 
cay 164 

Venetian Fiddle Makers 1 Secret,. . . 149 
Vicafs Hydraulic Masonry, 103 : 
Method, 102 : Mixture. 103 : 
Theory, 68. 

Violitter's Process, 148 

Vitreous Solid Glass, 44 : Variety 

of Quartz 25 

Vitrifying Kali 19 

Volcanic " Dust. 99 : Pumice, 99 : 
Sand. 37 : Sandstone, 37, 

Wall Damp Concrete 81 

Walls of Bastile, 99 : Preserva- 
tion of, 209. 



Walnut Changes Color, 148 

Water Glass, 13: Compound, 16; 

Potash, 18: Simple, 16. 
Water Lime. 100 : Lime Test. 101 : 
in Wood. 68 : Sweetening, 226 : 
Tank Cement, 214. 
Waves as Destructive to Corals as 

Winds to Forests, 284 

Waves Destroy and Reduce Coral 

Fragments, 284 

Westminster A.bbey, 18 

White Arsenic, 40 

White Lead, Substitute for 139 

White Paint, Cheap, 126 

White, Permanent, 138 

White Stone, 48 

Whitewash and Silicate, 84 : Cheap- 
est, 213. 

Window Glass, 13 

Wismar Harbor 20 

Witherite 138 

Wood and Stone Pavements, Ob- 
jections to, 188 : Becomes Strong- 
er. 149 . Exposure to 480° Steam, 
148 : Non-Inflamible. 51 : Opal, 
36 : Painting Peels off, 127 : 
Shrinkage of, 169: Silicincation 
of, 34, 140 : Suitable for Musical 
Instruments. 149. 
Wooden Buildings, 127: Exposed 
to Vapor, 127 : Change of Tem- 
perature. 127. 

Wooden Pavements. Merits of, 188 

Wooden Railways, Report on, 158 

Wooden Roof Shingles, 149, 176 

Wool Growers' Uses 52 

Yellow and White Pine 167 

Yellow Ochre, 126, 138 

Yellow Quartz 27 

Yellow Wash, Cheapest, 213 

Zeolites 39 

Zinc Cement, 224 

Zinc White, Suitable for 139 



ERRORS, 



WHICH HAVE BEEN OVERLOOKED, AND WILL BE CORRECTED 
IN THE NEXT EDITION BY THE AUTHOR. 



?01 


r refractory, 


^ ^ — 
read reverboratory, 


page 13, 4th lii 


ie. 




it 


silica, 


a 


silicic, 


" 18, 1st < 




a 


when, 


a 


then, 


" 22, 10th ; 


f. b. 


u 


shist, 


it 


schist, 


" 34, 10th < 






it 


fine, 


it 


fire, 


" 35, 14th ' 






a 


acidity, 


it 


alkali, 


" 42, 1st ' 






a 


silification, 


a 


silicification, 


" 58, 13th ' 






it 


linicular, 


it 


lenticular, 


" 75, 2d ' 






a 


sillification, 


u 


silicification, 


" 113, 6th ' 






a 


do. 


a 


do. 


" 113, 16th ' 






u 


do. 


it 


do. 


" 114, 11th < 






it 


do, 


it 


do. 


" 131, 10th < 






it 


appled, 


it 


applied, 


" 133, 2d " 






a 


sillification 


a 


silicification, 


" 140, at the head, and 
the whole chapter, 


tl 


colite, 


a 


oolite, 


" 283, 2d line. 


a 


siluvian, 


a 


silurian, 


" 300. 


it 


is, 


it 


are, 


" 297. 


u 


ooletic, 


n 


oolitic, 


" 295. 


a 


group, 


it 


gravity, 


" 289. 


a 


150,000,000, read 150,000, 


" 309 










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